Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sakura had become an accomplished kunoichi. She had accomplished every goal she had made for herself along the way as well. However, the hole in her heart only grew with time, never shrank. She couldn’t remember her Will of Fire in her heart anymore. It started to disappear when Ino died. It had been a freak mission shortly after she had begun training with Tsunade, reminding the pink-haired girl of her Land of Waves mission that had gone so terribly wrong. Only this time, legendary Kakashi Hatake was not their jonin leader, heck they only had a chunin leading them on that mission , and her teammates weren’t freakishly strong. In fact, it had been an ambush while the blonde had been on watch at night. Her swift yet futile fight allowed her teammates to gain control of the situation just after her breathing expired, pulse stopped. Sakura had withdrawn from her social interactions after that mission, not being able to connect with Konoha without Ino. The closest thing Sakura had to a Will of Fire now was a loyalty to mostly Naruto, somewhat to Kakashi and Tsunade, and barely to Lee. It would make Sakura happy to know Sasuke was in Konoha with Naruto again too. 

The rest of the war happened, the village moved on quickly. Sakura watched as her best friend was forgotten by the village. Her friends and family remembered and paid respects to her spirit often yes, but the village that had paid for her life for three whole years before her death did nothing to honor that sacrifice. They even let the family carve the name into the cenotaph, meaning no effort was made by the village at all to remember its fallen. Sakura had vowed to become stronger so nothing like Ino’s death could ever happen again, no matter what. 

So she had thrown herself into her training with the fifth Hokage. She quickly climbed the path to mastering medical ninjutsu, while accumulating and refining chakra for her byakugo seal. Once Sakura had completed a successful S-rank surgery, for an ANBU operative nonetheless, she was quickly given co-directorship of the hospital and free reigns. Sakura ironed the hospital’s redundancies out of the system, held masterclasses about medical ninjutsu to anyone capable of long-term, highly controlled chakra usage, and successfully petitioned and oversaw the production of a specialty mental health clinic for anyone affected by shinobi, or shinobi themselves. Her efforts brought healthy glows and happy thoughts to everyone in the village.

Except her. 

Her raging success meant she ran out of things to work towards. So she started training with Lee, Neji, Kurenai, and Kiba to start to optimize her combat skills and boost her weaknesses. Taijutsu training with Kiba was wild and free, and he taught her how to utilize enhanced senses in battle. Sakura had to channel chakra to maintain the same effect the Inuzuka had but it was still effective. Taijutsu training with Lee was complete physical overexertion and Sakura loved every second of it. He pushed her speed, reflexes, stamina, and strength to the max every day. She was in awe of the green spandex wearing shinobi of her village, as she had taken to healing some of the damage to her muscles daily for otherwise she wouldn’t be functional. She knew they avoided the hospital unless it was a dire injury and thus received no supplemental healing to their ridiculous routines. Training with Kurenai helped her proficiency with genjutsu. The most useful genjutsu technique the red-eyed woman had taught Sakura had been a genjutsu cast upon oneself to be perceived by others that slightly shifted her presence to the right or left. It would usually allow the pink-haired woman to get close and take her target out while they were confused by her seemingly effortless dodges. Training with Neji was nowhere near as often as the rest, and mainly helped Sakura have feedback on her genjutsu against a visual kekkei genkai. He quickly saw through her illusions in the beginning, and his short words of seeing a difference in chakra between your system and the jutsu prompted the woman to brainstorm her problem. 

Eventually, she had made a seal tattoo that held one handsign's focus out within the energy of her body, focusing her entire chakra system to the rhythm needed for a genjutsu attached to one’s own flesh. Her tattoo was faint in color on her right wrist, drawn in her own blood so she didn’t need any for activation. She needed to finish the genjutsu's hand signs and form the last one to her wrist to apply her genjutsu with the seal. The seal would attune to that frequency and hold the jutsu out within her chakra systems passively instead of separating chakra to make the jutsu, allowing her focus to go towards healing or her chakra-enhanced strength. It was a very integrated way of using genjutsu. The next time she asked the Hyuuga prodigy for a spar, he was unable to see through her illusion with his kekkei genkai and was thoroughly impressed at the improvement. It only worked on genjutsu cast on herself to be perceived by others, but it gave Sakura a serious edge in battle.

Once her illusions had fooled the Hyuuga boy, Sakura had demanded to return to the field but primarily as an elite combat operative, instead of a medic. She was an accomplished kunoichi and could easily explain her actions as wanting to be the best for her village, to serve whatever missions and goals they had for her and live to return. The reality was Ino’s death had prompted the pink-haired girl to spiral and throw herself into her training and responsibilities lest she drown in her sorrow. Eventually, her act had convinced Tsunade of her commitment. Naruto and Kakashi were constantly going on missions with Yamato and Sai trying to get Sasuke back. Sakura had once been dedicated to that cause as well, but Ino’s death knocked her off that path and into depression. Her teammates did not wait for her. Sakura rarely saw her teammates as she rose through the ranks of medics and once she threw herself into her shinobi training. She didn’t need to fool them with her fake happiness. Tsunade obliged her with A-S+ rank infiltration and assassination missions, trusting in her abilities to disguise herself and heal herself if anything went wrong. Her completed missions expanded in diversity, allowing her to travel far and wide in the name of the village. Sakura saw much suffering along her travels. 

She saw a dramatic disparity of resources between the Hidden Villages and villages throughout the lands without shinobi resources. It seemed like instead of just power that was concentrated into the Elemental Nations (particularly the Hidden Villages) but wealth and opportunities. For villages not protected by a nearby ninja village, local lords had taken to controlling as much land as possible. Gangs of bandits, mercenaries, and the occasional missing-nin composed the forces required for those local lords to squabble amongst themselves. Wherever any shinobi roamed, destruction eventually followed. Reparations from Hidden Villages were slower and much more rare. When there were military tensions, taxes were raised exorbitant amounts. Hunger, conflict, and disease were commonplace in lesser villages and settlements. The darkness in Sakura’s heart grew every time she left Konoha for an extended mission. She saw too much suffering to justify the death that her village bartered for. She yearned to help the world, not just her village. 

Now, three years after Sakura focused on becoming an excellent combat shinobi, she was underway on a long term infiltration mission. When Tsunade had assigned Sakura to the lengthy, undercover, solo mission several months prior, she had honestly thought that it wouldn't take the expected length of time. She just wished that it had been because of her skills that had cut her mission short, and not an emergency. 

Sakura had been sent on a seduction and assassination mission, with the express goal of making her target seemingly disappear into nothingness with a new woman on his arm. She had succeeded in getting close to her target, frequently spending the night in his room. Her proclivity for genjutsu ensured that she was not inappropriately touched and gave her target the correct memories. She had just needed several more weeks in close proximity to the man to further convince him of her loyalty and value. That had been when an unknown missing-nin had appeared, to seemingly scout her target. She was unfamiliar with the missing-nin, having an orange mask and monstrous chakra. Sakura had not met directly with the newcomer, but her patrols of clones making her perimeter did see and assess him. The newcomer was too dangerous and too unknown to prompt any other course of action beyond expediting her current mission.

Once her patrols confirmed that the newcomer had left, Sakura bustled around her target's room, hurriedly packing a bag of his travel clothes and stashes of money that he had weak genjutsus hiding. Stuffing everything a man would need for a spur of the moment trip into his bag, Sakura slapped her pack onto her back first, followed by her target's. Then the kunoichi picked up the unconscious man, still smiling from the sexual memories Sakura had forcibly implanted in his mind, and leapt to the window. The only lucky part about Sakura's escape was the fact that the lax civilian patrol was away from the back of the building currently, missing the sight of Sakura climbing out of the window, leader slung over her shoulders while she deftly closed the window behind her. Leaping to the ground, Sakura was immediately running through the night, putting much distance between herself, her target, and her eventual pursuers. The tendency of her target to bow to a pretty woman's whims would only cause an hour or two of confusion at most in the morning. His guards would realize he never told a soul of his departure, even as he had an important meeting within a week. Sakura knew that not all of his staff trusted her, as she was a relatively new face that had gained his trust quickly. That is exactly why I didn't want to do anything drastic. Damned missing-nin! I wonder what they wanted? I wonder if they're a client of his? Sakura tried to not glower at nothing while she ran.

She had summoned clones a respectable distance from the compound to morph into herself as a concubine and her target. Her clones would walk a leisurely pace towards Iwa, appearing to be a new, lovestruck couple. It took a significant chunk of her chakra to maintain the illusion but it was well worth the risk, especially if there were such high-calibre missing nin after her target as well. He was a very wealthy nobleman, if a bit eccentric. His eccentricities of: collecting women, collecting weapons, bestowing those in combination to the highest bidder, and stout, vehement anti-shinobi beliefs had brought Konoha's attention to the man. It would be best to remove this dangerous cog all together from the political landscape, and not clue all his allies into the fact that he had been assassinated. The removal of foreign supply lines and secrets always increased tensions between the Hidden Villages, but this man was too dangerous to be left alive.

Once Sakura was tens of miles away from her target's compound near one edge of Earth near the ocean, Sakura slowed. Straining her senses to the utmost, she set up a barrier of genjutsu over herself, with a quarter mile radius. Anyone who looked this way would see an empty, rocky, forest and feel an undeniable urge to turn away. Sakura was running low on chakra after maintaining her clones at such great distances, running with chakra enhancements for hours, and now casting that genjutsu. Once she was done with disposing of her target she would allow herself to deeply meditate within her sphere of genjutsu. It was as safe as she could get while alone in enemy territory. Yosh!  

Sakura flew through handsigns that popped her below the earth, bringing her target with her. Leaving any monstrous injuries or poisons in the body would lead any hunter-nin back to Konoha or their ally Suna, so Sakura dug her way through the packed ground until she found the root system of a very large tree. Excavating an area that would house the man's body, Sakura stripped her target and shoved him below the tree, packing dirt tightly against his face. She quickly buried the man and rose from the ground, bringing his clothing. Sakura removed his pack from her back and stuffed the clothing into it. Once she was finished with that she threw it into the air, flashing through handsigns for a small fire jutsu. It was the only fire jutsu she had in her arsenal without a fire affinity. Sakura had worked very hard to learn the small ninjutsu. It was the only ninjutsu she had that was not medical, water, or earth based. Steadily, Sakura exhaled until all that fell to the ground from her target's pack was ash. Her mission was complete. 

Stumbling around, Sakura quickly secured a camp a distance away from the grave tree she had made. Another scan of the area told her that no one was nearby. Sinking down into the earth, she began to meditate. Deeper and deeper she fell into her trance until she bordered true sleep several hours after having begun her meditation. Sakura almost missed when her genjutsu barrier was breached. 

Sakura’s eyes flew open once she had confirmed that yes, her barrier had in fact been breached. The thought made her blood run cold, as she was a highly effective genjutsu user and the thought of someone noticing and breaching her safety was unnerving. She had set up camp in the deep shadow of a tree in a cleft in the ground. Despite being uncomfortable, Sakura had been meditating and her position’s relative safety had lulled her into a doze. She was paying the price for it. If she left her hiding spot whoever had entered her barrier would surely see her. They already knew that someone was hiding under the genjutsu, otherwise, why would it be here? Stretching her senses, she could tell that whoever had entered her space was slowly moving towards her. Their chakra signature felt somewhat familiar, but Sakura could not figure out who it was. Gripping the kunai she had been dozing with tighter to herself, Sakura waited.

In the clearing her vantage point had sight of she saw a lone figure stumble out of the treeline and fall to his knees coughing. Eyes widening, Sakura realized who it was that had pierced her genjutsu. With a chakra signature far more powerful than she had remembered, she saw Sasuke Uchiha. He had blood everywhere, slashes marring whatever flesh she could see. His right arm and leg weren’t as responsive as the rest of his limbs. Sakura could also see a faint tremor throughout his body as if he had a fever. Wherever he had come from had been a fierce battle. As the man struggled to regain control over his body, Sakura studied him. He was incredibly faint, and surprisingly, seemingly malnourished. Sakura couldn’t fight the tiny sigh that left her as she realized she had no choice but to attempt to capture her former love interest. Then try to heal him. Sakura still considered the missing Konoha ninja to be a close friend and she would not let any of her friends fall to harm. And, he had ‘capture and return to village’ status, having Team 7 be essentially dedicated to it.  

At the noise of her sigh, Sasuke’s head spun to Sakura’s location and made eye contact with her, sharingan blazing. A look of annoyance passed over his face as he turned around and left her genjutsu barrier. Sakura stayed still for a moment after his departure, debating the efficacy of giving chase. Once I capture him I can summon Katsuyu to give word to the Hokage and perhaps demand reinforcements. I don’t have the chakra to waste on a summoning right now for immediate assistance if I have to chase him. This is too good of an opportunity to pass. Standing and quickly slapping her pack on her back once more, Sakura banished the genjutsu barrier and became oriented in her landscape once more. She was able to see Sasuke’s retreating form enter the forest to the south. He was not moving at the speed an S-class ninja should have been. Sighing again, Sakura gave chase.

The intensely rocky terrain with infrequent copses of trees made it quite difficult to catch up to the injured ninja, even as slow as he was. Sakura hadn’t had much time to recuperate all of her depleted chakra and was running at only half capacity. She didn't waste chakra to speed herself up to overtake the Uchiha, just keep pace with him. As she was assessing her own chakra stores, Sakura was also examining Sasuke. His wounds were fearsome, yet he was running from her with a surprising amount of vigor, but still leading with his non-injured side. Doesn’t he know I’m a healer? At that thought, Sakura called out, “Hey Sasuke! Stop running! I can heal you and then we can talk!” At her words Sasuke seemingly faltered, but kept up his flight.

“Do you wanna die? What are you doing you idiot ? First, you leave the village and now you find me just to make me watch you die? I thought we could be friends again! Let me heal you! I swear to God Sasuke, I will revive you just to kill you again if you die!” Sasuke glared at her from over his shoulder. He was heading into a proper forest and for the first time Sakura was considering the chance that her first love, first team teammate, her friend might be leading her into a calculating trap. He seemed to see the wavering emotions on her face and smirked at them, running faster. The amount of blood on his trail was constant. Ignoring the beginnings of a bad premonition, Sakura followed Sasuke into the forest. 

Once they were soundly within the forest and tree hopping, Sasuke abruptly stuck to his branch and spun to face her. Wary, Sakura also stayed on her branch a distance away from him. 

“What are you playing at Sasuke?” No response.

“Why did you bring me all the way here?” No response.

“Are you going to let me heal you or do I need to force it?” At this, he smirked and deigned her with a response. With a decidedly not Sasuke voice, he replied “For one supposedly so skilled with genjutsu, I find myself disappointed you have not caught on yet, kunoichi. My ally is not hidden with any genjutsu as well, and yet you failed to sense him.” At this, a huge man with a massive, wrapped sword dropped onto a branch behind the kunoichi, making her summon a solid clone so she could keep both opponents fully in her sights and be ready to fight.

“You’ll have to forgive me Itachi, it’s not every day you find the legendary Uchiha-slayer imitating his baby brother. What’s the matter? Didn’t think a pretty girl would like you as much?” At her name-calling she could see his jaw clench. Behind her Kisame chuckled, having seen no woman ever taunt the frigid man before, let alone get a rise out of him. 

"That is irrelevant. You have allowed yourself to be caught in a trap. We do not wish to harm you but require you to come with us. If you choose to fight, we will oblige," he finished by withdrawing his katana and getting into a defensive stance. Kisame chuckled again and began to unwrap a part of his sword. Sakura rapidly evaluates her options. She only has one quarter of her chakra, her clone another one quarter. After her rapid and extended flight yesterday, taijutsu would be strenuous but possible. Itachi saw through her genjutsu barrier which meant she only had ninjutsu and taijutsu at her disposal. She started molding chakra in her legs to give herself a boost of speed. Kisame Hoshigaki's presence meant any advantage she had with water ninjutsu was nullified. She was willing to bet that one of them had an earth affinity as well. That left medical ninjutsu. Her chakra scalpel formed in both of her right hands. If she could disable both of their core chakra centers, or close to it, she could win this fight even with her abysmal chakra levels. All she would need to do is touch them in mostly the right spot. Still, why had they approached Sakura specifically?

Finishing her battle assessment after two seconds, Sakura launched herself at her opponents. Kisame was caught mostly by surprise and barely dodged her quick attack but was able to be swiped at with her chakra scalpel, cutting his muscles and chakra circuits near a kidney, just missing his spine. He sagged immediately, and growled at the woman. He remained upright though it was obvious it took effort. Quickly swiping at her clone, his sword feasted on the clone's section of Sakura's chakra. Meanwhile, Itachi had been able to see her prep chakra and was already on guard, blocking her surgical strike to his chest with his katana. Launching backwards away from the kunoichi, Itachi narrowed his eyes at her. As she went to launch herself after him she could feel her clone disappear, giving her the memories of the chakra-eating sword. Samehada landed on her calf, quickly consuming the remainders of her chakra. Sakura fell unconscious. 

Kisame was leaning in on himself, injured side being curled in upon. He looked down at the unconscious shinobi at his feet while Itachi joined him. 

"You know, I didn't expect her to have that speed after watching her chase you. She's a fun one," Kisame was grinning through his grimace of pain.

"She disconnected your right kidney and nearly your legs from your chakra system. We need to have them reconnected soon. I did not expect so much damage from capturing her," with that, Itachi leaned down and scooped up the unconscious kunoichi. Typically Kisame would carry an unconscious charge but with his injury to his chakra system, Itachi would have to manage. Making their way to Rain, the duo tried to hurry. Kisame pushed through the fire his severed nerves constantly had but was unable to augment his speed with chakra. Itachi silently carried the pink-haired woman, keeping an eye on her chakra levels. Her body began to unconsciously heal the damage Samehada had caused on her leg before Itachi had assessed she should be able to function. He watched her with rapt attention after the unconscious healing to ascertain if his assessment about her required levels of chakra for consciousness was correct. He was. Yet she healed herself roughly half a day before she began to regain consciousness after chakra exhaustion. Interesting. Every other day Kisame drained the woman of chakra so she would remain unconscious. After seven days of laborious travel, the pair entered into the borders of Rain, Ame shinobi patrolling the border essentially ignoring the pair and their charge. Kisame was staggering and Itachi stoically not showing his exhaustion at reinforcing his body so he could carry her against his chest for a week straight so he could keep an eye on her chakra levels. Here in Rain the pair allowed themselves to slow down ever so slightly and breathe deeply. 

They made their way through the countryside towards Amegakure. Normally Akatsuki members weren't seen by the country folk, moving swiftly across the land. Itachi and Kisame were too tired and injured to care. Kisame grinned at whoever was brave enough to look at the ninjas' faces, showing off his razor sharp teeth. It rained steadily in the countryside. When the pair crossed into Amegakure, the rain lessened to a faint drizzle. The pair made their way deeper into the village. Konan appeared shortly after they started towards Pain's Tower, taking the unconscious kunoichi away from Itachi. She silently lifted an eyebrow, taking in Kisame's injured gait. Turning around, she quickly leaped upwards onto the rooftops, running at full speed towards Pain’s Tower with Sakura in her arms. 

"Huh, I guess we're late" Kisame muttered as he followed the kunoichi slowly. Itachi said nothing as he continued with his partner. 

The pair were entering Pain's office now, the doors having been left open by Konan.

Chapter Text

Sakura was sitting slumped over in a chair across from Pain, who was sitting at his desk. Konan was standing behind him, withdrawn into one corner to view the whole room. Pain's purple eyes took in the damage to Kisame.

"I see Konan did not exaggerate. Interesting," he mused turning his eyes back to the unconscious medic. "When will she awaken?"

Kisame hesitated for a moment, then said "I had to drain her multiple times on the way back from Earth to keep her unconscious. The last time I did that was yesterday. She should wake up within a day is my guess". Itachi offered nothing, so Pain nodded. 

"She will not join easily. She will be watched as she comes to realize we are the best option for the world. She will join God's side eventually and help save humanity," looking at his injured member he added, "Konan will send some missives to you when she awakens for healing". Quickly realizing their dismissal, the pair left to wait for their new medic to awaken. 

"Konan, you may take her to her prepared quarters outside of our base. I don't want to speak with her until she sees Amegakure," nodding, the purple haired woman picked up the Konoha kunoichi and departed from Pain’s Tower, to a section of apartments that surrounded the base. There the pink-haired woman would live until she joined their elite ranks, for she would join. There was no other path for a shinobi that truly valued love above death. 

**

Groggy, Sakura woke up to an unfamiliar room. She was in a bed in a corner of the room facing the door into the bedroom. There was a table and chair in the corner opposite her, and a kunoichi in the far corner. The unfamiliar kunoichi with purple hair was holding out a glass of water. Sakura did not recognize her but couldn’t resist the glass of cold water. Remembering to drink slowly because she felt like she was very dehydrated and she didn’t want to upset her system, Sakura assessed the kunoichi.

“Hello Sakura, my name is Konan. I would like to talk with you first and we can fight after if you are still upset at our methods. I do apologize for the forceful nature of our summons, there truly was no other way. I am convinced you would have refused our request to talk given the fight between you and our messengers.” Looking at the other woman more closely, Sakura saw she wore delicate purple eyeshadow to enhance her amber eyes with some eyeliner. She also had a pierced bottom lip, and wore a paper flower in her hair. The woman was wearing black shinobi clothing with a high collared overcoat with red clouds adorning it left unbuttoned.

“You abducted me just to talk? Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki are your messengers? What does the Akatsuki want with me? We could have talked in the field. Although, I don’t remember you being there.” The purple haired woman started shaking her head as Sakura was speaking.

“You are correct, I wasn’t there. However, the evidence I need to convince you in our talk is here in this village. How are your chakra levels?” Konan inquired. Pausing in confusion, Sakura stared at the woman for a moment. Continuing with her explanation, the Rain kunoichi explained, “you were consistently drained of chakra to remain unconscious during Itachi and Kisame’s travels. Regrettably, they were unable to travel at top speed to return you in a timely manner and you were forced to remain unconscious for close to a week, barring two instances where you were given water.” That would explain why I’m so thirsty . Shocked to hear that she had been drained of chakra for so long, Sakura assessed her chakra levels. 

“I would assess I’m twenty percent recovered. Are you going to make me heal someone?” Sakura narrowed her eyes at Konan, feeling uneasy having been brought somewhere by her enemies to heal an unknown person.

“Well, we didn’t plan on Kisame being so heavily damaged and would like him to be fixed please. However, that was not in the original plan and other than undoing your damage to him, I would like to just show you our village. I imagine you would want at least half your chakra for it, although no danger will be present, you have my word.” Confused once more, Sakura weighed Konan’s words for potential untruths and couldn’t find one that explained the whole bizarre situation.

“Well. Given that you guys could have easily killed me at any point in the past week, I’m going to assume you’re telling the truth. I can heal Kisame now and then would like to perhaps have some alone time to stretch, exercise, take a shower, and then sleep for a good while to recuperate my chakra.” Again, Konan was shaking her head, but only twice and very small.

“While you are a guest, you will be watched or closely sensed at all times. This will be done to make sure you don’t attempt contact with Konoha to request assistance.Today I am your sensor. We do not have a single medic in our entire village and only three doctors. Please hear our plea before making your decision.” The sincerity and politeness of Konan’s speech gave Sakura pause. Only 3 doctors. No medics. Those were small town numbers. Somehow, Sakura got the impression that the village she was currently in was not in fact a small town. Wide eyes, Sakura nodded her head. Nodding back, Konan sent several pieces of paper to Kisame, alerting him to the pink kunoichi’s awakening and willingness to heal him. Several minutes later there was a knock at the front door.

Konan left the bedroom and opened the front door and ushered Kisame who was being supported by Itachi into where Sakura was. Upon entering her bedroom and Sakura saw the way Kisame’s body curled up around the damage, she got a vicious grin on her face. Cha! Looks like I’m better than I give myself credit for! That’s an S-rank nin!! Rising from her bed, Sakura gestured for Kisame to lay down on it. Kisame limped the final steps to the bed while Itachi retreated into a corner, sharingan active, watching her. Konan stood in the doorway, watching closely. Once Kisame was settled, Sakura brought the chair over to the bed. Sitting down, Sakura reached out and lay a hand on Kisame to assess the damage she had caused. That particular nugget of information is what caused the predatory grin that sat on Sakura’s face while working over the Akatsuki member. That grin was most likely why the other two members were watching her so closely. She had disconnected his right kidney from his chakra system and had shredded the skeletal muscles in his back around it. She severed the nerves in the area as well. In all, it was a good amount of damage. Sakura had not had many opportunities to use the chakra scalpel against anyone so knowing that she had to be more precise with a moving target or wait until she was on solid ground herself was helpful going forward. 

“And you’ve been walking around for a week like this?”

“Look pinkie, I didn’t have much of a choice. You gonna fix it or not?” Flicking his forehead below his forehead protector, Sakura retorted, “Yeah, I don’t have much choice either, dummy! Take off your shirt so I can do this properly.” Ignoring the way Kisame leered up at her words, Sakura drank more of her water while he removed his shirt. Once he was settled back down on the bed with his torso exposed, Sakura laid her hands on his abdomen. Channeling medical chakra through the connection, she entered his system, restoring the cut chakra connection of his kidney, giving it vital essence once more. She cut away the decaying flesh throughout the kidney that being disconnected from the chakra system for a week had caused, commanding the body to metabolize the waste products her efforts produced. After the rotting flesh had been dealt with, Sakura prompted his cells to divide rapidly, in the pattern she commanded which was a functional kidney. Next, Sakura kneaded the shredded muscles around his kidney back into place, both with her hands and chakra while growing new muscles to replace what was useless. It was surely uncomfortable with his still frayed nerves. What had been shredded was most of Kisame’s lower right quadrant’s skeletal muscle. A large area of muscle had to be realigned and regrown. Again, she commanded his body to reabsorb the extra flesh and blood that had been collecting in his body for a week. Finally, Sakura joined the peripheral nerves she had severed back together. While she did that Kisame hissed in pain. Normally, Sakura would have numbed the nerves first, but since he was an abductor, she just did the minimum. She withdrew her hands from his abdomen, glancing back at her audience. Itachi’s red eyes were looking at her face so she looked at his chest. She glanced at Konan, who was also looking at her.

“I am curious, Sakura, how are your chakra levels now after healing Kisame?” Konan asked the medic. Itachi’s eyes faded back to black while Sakura assessed her chakra levels. 

“I used sixty percent of what I had before beginning the procedure; hey I did good for only touching him for a second!” Sakura answered evasively while snarling a grin. She didn’t want Itachi and Kisame to know just how low on chakra she was. Nodding in understanding, the purple haired woman gestured for Kisame and Itachi to leave. Bowing their thanks for the healing, the men left her apartment.

“You must be very tired. Please, do your activities and rest for the night. As I said, I am your sensor for this evening so I will be on your couch in the living room for the night. Tomorrow, I will show you Amegakure and explain our medical problem to you. Thank you for treating Kisame, it looked like there was much damage.” The fact that the damage was Sakura’s fault was left unsaid, because their actions led to that damage. 

“Of course. Thanks for giving me a modicum of privacy at least. Goodnight, Konan.”

“Goodnight, Sakura.” With that, she left the bedroom, shutting the door behind her. The pink-haired woman had been considering summoning Katsuyu to send word of her abduction to Tsunade, but hearing how bleak Ame's medical system seemed to be gave her pause. She could truly help many people here. Also, Sakura didn't think fighting the Akatsuki in a life and death match with 8% of her chakra would be a smart decision. So, Sakura set about stretching, working the stiffness out of her joints.

Once she felt limber and warmed up, Sakura began clapping push-ups. She used no chakra and thoroughly enjoyed the burn that she developed in her core and her shoulders. Eventually after several hundred push-ups, Sakura entered her bathroom to shower. Allowing the hot water to fill her bathroom with steam, the kunoichi ducked under the spray of water. Sighing as she felt some tension bleed out of her shoulders as the hot water ran down her muscles, Sakura lathered up her hair and body and went to work cleaning herself. 

Feeling refreshed, Sakura left the bathroom and found new clothes laid out on her bed and a bento box on the table. Sakura still had her own clothing from her pack, but fresh laundry was alluring to the woman who had been on a mission for four months, so Sakura pulled on the all-black clothing. They were the correct size, form fitted, and very comfortable for sleeping. Eating the provided food so fast she didn't even process what it was, when Sakura fell on to the bed, sleep consumed the woman.

**

The next morning Sakura dressed in some of her own clothing she took out of a scroll in her pack. She wore the full Konoha jonin uniform with Konoha hitai-ate in her hair to show off her byakugo seal, if only to make a point with her abductors. Konan did not comment on her attire as she exited her bedroom, only handed Sakura another bento box. Bowing slightly, Sakura turned back to her bedroom to sit at the table there. It seemed like that table was the only one in the apartment aside from a small end table next to the couch. Eating her breakfast mechanically, Sakura thought to herself.

I knew Sasuke wouldn’t just show up out of nowhere. I could have dispelled Itachi’s genjutsu had I just stopped to think! Now I’m captured. Just great. At least it sounds like I have some power over my situation. They want me to help them willingly. Interesting. I’ll see whatever medical problems they have and maybe there will be an opportunity to escape. My chakra isn’t completely restored, but I can use my seal if I need to. Cha!

Rising with her now empty bento box, Sakura once again exited her bedroom. Konan hadn’t moved from her couch, which was along the wall next to her bedroom door. 

“Are you ready to see Amegakure, Sakura?” Konan inquired with a small smile. Sighing, Sakura retorted “it isn’t as if I have much of a choice seeing as I’m technically a prisoner. I would rather cut to the chase instead of exchanging pleasantries all day. Take me to your hospital, tell me your spiel, let me talk with your leader, the whole deal.” Dropping her smile, Konan stood from her spot on the couch.

“Very well. Follow me please.” Konan left Sakura’s apartment building, staying on the ground but moving swiftly south. Sakura had never heard much about the Village Hidden in the Rain, but she could never have been prepared for the sight of so many very very tall buildings with wires connecting them every which way. It was an impressive sight. The Akatsuki member led Sakura to a relatively small building for the city. Entering, Sakura saw a bleak foyer with one woman behind the front desk. She nodded at Konan and Sakura, not arguing as they continued on into the hospital. Calling it a hospital was a stretch. It was a large medical practice office. Surely the upper floors could eventually be utilized for more space, but adding more floors seemed like a daunting task for the bleak office. There weren’t nurses flitting about to check on patients. There was one nurse that was swamped in her work.

“Today there is one doctor present at this hospital. From what I understand, all of our doctor’s knowledge is very broad throughout the body but they are restricted to methods of healing without chakra which are longer and more prone to failure. I suppose the constant rain causes pneumonia more often than in other places which is tricky to treat if caught late to begin with, let alone with the chronic conditions. We need someone with the ability to use medical ninjutsu, have the knowledge and skill to treat deeply rooted disease, and perhaps even teach a couple of our ninja medical ninjutsu for the future. We need you, Sakura-” here Sakura tried to interrupt but Konan kept talking, “Before you decide based on politics, please help the people of Ame. Your skills are legendary and we desperately need your particular skill set.” Staring at the purple haired woman with thinly veiled disbelief, Sakura summoned two shadow clones.

“Yosh! We heal the patients!” With that, the clone Sakuras entered nearby patient rooms. The real Sakura waited for a beat to listen and was rewarded when she heard wracking, wet coughs from a room her clones did not enter. Sakura entered and saw an older man sitting hunched over, coughing in the hospital bed and perhaps his young grandson sitting vacantly in the chair next to the bed. Konan trailed behind Sakura, seemingly to watch her healing session again. Once the coughing subsided the old man looked at Sakura. Before he could speak, Sakura offered, “My name is Sakura and I am a medic and can heal you of your ailments. May I? What is your name?” Muttering about how they should have sent her sooner, the man nodded and barked one clear “Yes! My name is Toshio” before continuing his muttering. The young boy just watched on in silence, hazel eyes big, and unnoticed as they watched her glowing green hands touch his uncle’s torso, one on the front and one on the back. He was already wearing a patient gown that gave her direct access with a mostly open back and a decently deep v-neckline. 

The man’s lungs had a decent amount of fluid in them, making breathing difficult. Sakura could sense that the cause of his pneumonia was bacterial, so she attuned her chakra scalpel to bacterial endotoxins and combed through the man’s lungs. She purged his body of the invading bacteria and then set about clearing his lungs of fluid. 

“Toshio, you’re going to start to feel the need to cough a lot . Don’t fight it, I am clearing your lungs of fluid and this is the least unpleasant way I can remove it. Konan, can you find a bucket and some tissues for Toshio please? Please cough your sputum into the tissues” Seconds later a pile of tissues appeared next to Toshio on the bed and Konan handed him the bucket she had found in a cabinet. Sakura stimulated the hair-like projections inside the man’s lungs to move in the wave-like patterns needed to expel material. Toshio felt a deep cough forming, and with encouragement from Sakura began to cough into some tissues. His coughing forced the liquid in his lungs into the wave motions ready to capture and expel it. Toshio began coughing in earnest as phlegm and dead bacteria traveled up his respiratory tract and into the waiting tissues. Sakura continued her stimulation of Toshio’s cilia until his coughing subsided several minutes later. He went through all of the tissues Konan had summoned for him. Smiling at the man, Sakura watched as he experimented with breathing. Once he realized he could breathe deeply with no pain, a look of awe broke out on his face and he did his best to bow thanks to the pink-haired woman. 

“I’ve never seen any kind of healing like that before. You fixed what I’ve been struggling with for a year or two in twenty minutes. Those are some hands, missy. Thank you,” the once grumpy man thanked her sincerely. Nodding her acknowledgement of his thanks, Sakura’s eyes made contact with the boy’s before looking back at Konan. The purple haired woman watched as the look of confused realization passed over Sakura’s face as she turned back towards the boy. One of his pupils was blown out.

“Have you been hit on the head recently?” The boy’s eyes were locked on hers and his mouth moved but no sound came out. Sakura saw panic set in those hazel eyes as she turned to Toshio.

“Is this your child? Has he been hit on the head recently? Has he had any changes in mood or personality recently?” The child’s name was Aota and yes Toshio was taking care of him as his parents were dead. He wasn’t aware of any head injury Aota had but yes he had all of a sudden become moody and withdrawn several months ago. Hearing that, Sakura cursed. Konan looked on with intrigue. 

“Okay Toshio, I need you to listen to me and trust me. I just healed you. Now I need to heal Aota. His healing will take much longer and I need to take him to a different room. Do I have permission to do that? Konan here” she gestured back to the purple-haired kunoichi, whose cloak was recognized by all within Amegakure, “will assist me with his surgery.” Toshio’s mouth was hanging open, looking at Sakura in shock at her words. At her raising an eyebrow, he agreed that Sakura could perform whatever surgery she deemed necessary to save the boy. Quickly gathering Aota in her arms, Sakura turned to Konan. 

“I need a staging room now, lead the way please.” The pair left Toshio’s room and hurried up the hall, deeper into the building. Looking down at the boy, Sakura saw him looking at her with wide eyes. Good.

“Aota, blink twice if you can understand me,” blink blink. Good . “Perfect. I need you to take a shower and wash real good with some soap, okay? Can you do that for me?” blink blink. “Perfect. I’ll be in the next room getting clean myself and ready. I will come help you if anything happens, okay?” blink blink. “Okay, we’re here,” Sakura deposited the boy in front of a shower stall and turned on the warm water for him. Leaving him to take a shower, Sakura quickly procured a patient gown and placed it where the boy would see it upon leaving his shower. After that was done, Sakura instructed Konan to wash her hands and arms. The Konoha nin had already rolled up her long-sleeve shirt.

“What is wrong with the boy?” A sigh.

“I think he has a tumor somewhere in his brain. You ever been a part of an exploratory brain surgery before?” Konan’s eyes widened slightly upon hearing Sakura’s words spoken with a chuckle. 

“I’m going to need you to hold him immobile. A particularly strong genjutsu could work instead of physically holding him down and maybe let him see something else but still be able to hear me. That part is up to you. I may ask you to do one or two more things as well during the surgery itself. It is going to take a while.”

Quietly, Konan offered, “he will see a field of flowers,” and Sakura smiled genuinely at the woman for the first time. Hearing a padding of footsteps, the women turned to see Aota wearing his patient gown. Grabbing his hand, Sakura led him into the operating room. It is bare and just has a table for the patient to lay down on.

“Aota, I am going to fix whatever is making it difficult to see and talk. Konan here will place a genjutsu on you which is a fancy way to say an illusion. Throughout the procedure she will let you be able to hear me and talk back to me. She’s also going to hold you still throughout for your own safety. Is all that okay with you?” He blinked twice at her. Nodding, she turned to look at Konan. 

“Please place him under the full genjutsu now.” The purple haired woman nodded and made the hand signs for a very strong, fully enveloping genjutsu. Sakura saw the moment his eyes glazed over. 

“You use a unique paper ninjutsu, right? Could you cocoon him in paper in a reclined sitting position? This operating room is a bit lacking in equipment to help me situate him otherwise.” Eyeing the Konoha medic with interest she agreed, “Yes, I can hold him in the position you need. Just tell me when.” Sakura picked up the boy and positioned him on the operating table, face up, supporting his back and head as she positioned him with his head and shoulders over the edge of the table so Sakura could access all angles of his head. 

“Okay, keep him just like this place, head unmoving too,” at her words, paper began swirling throughout the room and attaching itself to the boy, wrapping his body in a cocoon, ending just under the boy’s ears. One piece of paper left the room in the display. Having Pain or Itachi here to watch the impromptu brain surgery with their insightful eyes would be a good display for Sakura’s prowess. Sakura blinked at the now wrapped boy before thanking the Rain kunoichi. 

“Hold him like this until I say otherwise please. I am going to find the tumor and remove it now. During the actual removal process he will need to be able to hear me and respond so I know of any immediate problems that arise.” Placing one hand on the boy’s forehead and the other on the back of his head, Sakura shut her eyes and concentrated on her medical ninjutsu. She did not notice the red-eyed crow that had arrived moments ago and watched from the window. 

The brain was a highly complex organ and finding a tumor that may or may not exist was going to be a long scavenger hunt. Deciding to work from the innermost layers out, Sakura examined his brainstem, moving up to the medulla oblongata, pons, midbrain, moving through the hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus and pituitary gland, muttering her actions as she went as was habit in surgeries like this. Usually she would have had another medic or two with her to supplement her own search. She combed through each structure but could find no disruptions. Deciding to move to the back of his brain, Sakura inspected his cerebellum and felt a pressure that wasn’t normally present. Looking closer, she found a hard, marble-sized lump sandwiched between his occipital lobe, temporal lobe, and cerebellum. After two hours of searching, she finally found the tumor and told Konan as much. Slowly disrupting her medical chakra, Sakura opened her eyes and got a kunai from her thigh pouch. Removing the hair from the back section of Aota’s head, Sakura prepared a site on the boy’s skull to be removed so the tumor could also be removed from his body. Attuning her chakra scalpel to his skin and bones, Sakura removed a square inch of skull to expose the boy’s occipital lobe. 

“Please let the boy hear me, blink his eyes, and talk to me. Watch his face for me and let me know if he is responding,” Konan nodded once before altering her genjutsu on the boy.

“Aota, can you hear me? If you blink twice, like last time, we’ll see it and know,” Two blinks, a nod from Konan, “good. I am removing the tumor now and want you to try and talk to me, even if talking doesn’t work right now. Can you try and describe what you’re seeing right now please?” Two blinks, another nod from Konan. Sakura could tell he was trying to describe whatever flowers Konan had produced in his mind by the way his jaw moved. She focused once more with her medical chakra back to the point in his brain where she knew the tumor to be. Gently, she burned away the connection from the mass and the rest of his brain, and healed the wound left behind. The boy was vocalizing almost understandable gibberish now. Connecting her chakra to the now free tumor with a chakra string, Sakura gently moved the mass along the crevice between the cerebellum and cerebrum, taking the time to heal whatever damage the movement caused as it happened. After long minutes of such incremental progress, the mass popped out of the hole in his head, and Sakura grinned.

“Ajd arfowrs amevaforite ones because my mother used to grow roses. Whoa am I actually talking? I’m talking! You did it! I can’t believe I’m talking again! Ms. Medic, I thought I was going to die and no one would know why. Thank you so much!” Hearing that Aota was speaking again and seemed like a normal boy again, Sakura joined his skull again and healed the skin above it. Nodding to Konan to release her jutsu, Sakura caught the boy and moved him solidly onto the operating table. Aota turned to look at her with misty eyes, both pupils normal once again. He gave her the biggest grin he could muster, reminding the medic of how Naruto could be, and thanked her again for saving his family. 

“I’m sure Toshio wants to talk to you again, Aota. Do you want to go back to his room?” Face lighting up in excitement, Aota eagerly agreed with Sakura and jumped off the table and rushed to the door. He had no problems with coordination either after the surgery. Letting a single tear fall and quickly wiping it away, Sakura led the boy back to Toshio’s room. Upon seeing the boy smiling and running around again, Toshio broke down. 

“You brought back Aota! You have magical hands, Lady Sakura. We are indebted to you forever for saving our small family. Thank you,” at this, Toshio rose from his bed to fall onto the floor in a deep bow before the medic. Unable to hold back another tear at the emotional display, Sakura assured the man she was happy to receive such heartfelt thanks from them, and would carry no debt of theirs before leaving the room. Konan, always watching, followed Sakura. 

The medic took several calming breaths outside of the room. Konan watched as Sakura was deeply moved by the family’s display of thanks. She also saw how tired the woman looked again.

“I assume your clones finished their own respective healings and dismissed themselves during the surgery?” A nod from the pink-haired woman, “Good. Then it is time to talk to Lord Pain. Please follow me.”

**

Itachi and Kisame were debriefing on the latter’s healing the day before to Pain when a paper missive entered the office and fluttered down in front of the Akatsuki’s leader. Quickly reading it, he ordered Itachi to summon a crow, use his sharingan through it and watch the medic’s surgery she was currently preparing for. Lightning fast Itachi flew through the hand signs to summon his crow he could share vision with. It was speeding off to the hospital as soon as it was summoned, the smoke from the jutsu not having cleared yet. 

“Watch her methods closely, her value as a medic is incomprehensible and I want you to assess her with the sharingan as well. Learn her jutsu if you can. She hurriedly took a child into brain surgery on a whim. Konan already seems to think she would become an irreplaceable cog within Ame.” Nodding, Itachi maintained the jutsu that allowed him to see through his crow. Kisame whistled at hearing ‘brain surgery’ and ‘whim’ in the same sentence and settled down for a long wait. He already thought the woman was a highly skilled shinobi. It didn’t take a medic to recognize that she had fucked him up in a second. If she hadn’t been curious about why their organization had approached her, he would have bled out in that forest in Earth country, of that he had no illusions about. 

“She is exploring the child’s brain,” Itachi murmured, focusing on watching the medic’s chakra slowly move through each structure she named. The chakra flowed smoothly through his brain, experiencing no disruptions, flow deliberately kept slow and constant. It would be very easy to move the chakra too quickly or too much at once and cause a chakra burn, yet no such wounds appeared. Once she reached the middle of the child’s brain, she moved her focus to the back moving forward and up now. It didn’t take her long to find an unyielding lump that interrupted her smooth chakra flow once she focused on the back of the organ. It was like a beacon that it didn’t belong, but only because Itachi had seen how her chakra should have been flowing through the area for so long first. Watching as she prepared the boy’s skull for surgery, Itachi noted the methodical way she removed a fragment of bone, skin hanging down around the opening. 

“She is operating on the tumor itself now. Konan has been helping her with the surgery with genjutsu and her paper,” curiously, Itachi watched and heard how the boy’s speech became closer and closer to actual language. Watching her attach and manipulate a chakra string to the lump for extraction, he murmured “she has potential for puppeteering as well. Highly effective use of chakra strings," he watched as the boy smiled at Sakura with all the warmth of the Sun behind it. 

"The surgery is complete, I am now dismissing my summon-” not before he saw her wipe a tear away with a smile, following the boy to his caretaker, “Another medic wouldn't have been able to complete that surgery and have clones healing others at the same time. I can summon  medical chakra-” he let his hand glow with green chakra “yet I would need to study and practice much to reach her level" Itachi opened his eyes to find Pain looking at him, nodding.

"They will come discuss her loyalties with me now. Go inform Kakuzu that he will be added to the rotation of her watch. Also, you are going to take over for Konan tonight, Itachi,” Kisame stood as Itachi said the surgery was over. Now, he smirked at Pain.

“How do you know she will need a watch?” The redhead’s lip curled up at one corner.

“Because I have given her the power to bargain with me. Now leave, they are approaching,” Pain busied himself with his paperwork while Itachi and Kisame withdrew deep into the Akatsuki headquarters. 

“Things are about to get fun around here,” Kisame chuckled.

“Hn.” To Itachi, another Konoha-nin joining the Akatsuki was definitely not fun.

**

As the two kunoichi entered Pain’s office, the redhead looked up at Sakura with a smile. 

“Welcome. I have heard that you performed a successful brain surgery on one of the village children. I would like to thank you properly for the services you have already rendered our village. Would you agree that one B rank mission’s pay would suffice?” Watching Pain with narrowed eyes, Sakura pursed her lips.

“I didn’t come here for money. You’re keeping me prisoner and I would like to discuss that with you, if it pleases you Lord Pain ” his title was said with as much scorn Sakura could muster.

“That may be the case, but today you have successfully treated seventeen patients of our hospital, one of which would have been an intensive surgery for almost any other medic. I cannot let this service to our village go unrewarded. Do you agree that a B rank mission’s pay is adequate?” 

“Does my reward have to be money?” Pain’s eyes flashed.

“No, I suppose it doesn’t. What do you have in mind?” When he said this, Konan’s head turned unconsciously towards him, staring at him with an unreadable expression.

“That depends,” here Sakura sat down in a chair across from Pain at his desk, “do you think I’m stupid enough to believe the Akatsuki brought me here just to heal the people of Amegakure?” Pain’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “Good. Now, I can only assume you want me to join this little gang of yours. Unfortunately, our ideals aren’t the best match right now, but I’m willing to compromise with you, for my life and my friends' lives. My reward could be you outright agreeing to my terms right now, but I think that’s a bit far fetched, wouldn’t you agree? It could be you listening to all of my terms and genuinely considering my compromise, instead of killing me for being annoying and making demands. If we can’t come to a compromise, I will still help at your hospital and teach medical ninjutsu to the Ame nin that have the requisite control for as long as I can before Konoha invades to rescue me, as I will tell them about my abduction and current location. Which would most likely oust the location of the Akatsuki to all other nations. You can’t kill me or disable me before I could get a message out-”she gestured to the purple diamond above her brow, “So. What will it be, Lord Pain?” 

“So passionate. I have given you the power to bargain with me, so it would only be right to hear your terms. What would you like in return for your allegiance, Sakura?” Never breaking eye contact, Sakura untied her hitai-ate and held it before her.

“If you agree to halt your mission to gain the One-Tails and the Nine-Tails, I will slash this headband right now.” For the first time this meeting, Pain’s whole face darkened.

“Do you know why I seek the Tailed Beasts?” She shook her head. “Because they are unstable weapons that will always be used for war. I desire peace throughout the lands.” Sakura’s eyes widened hearing his words. I’ve been dreaming of that too. Pressing on, he gestured to the red clouds of his jacket “if we have all that power and use it in the name of peace, the petty wars will die down out of fear. We will be able to be the arbiters of justice.”

“What if even after hearing your reasoning I still insist on sparing the One and Nine Tails? Gaara is the Kazekage and close friends with Naruto, who is on track to become the next Hokage after Tsunade. Naruto as Hokage means he will run his big mouth and make friends with every other Kage, no matter how much they may try to hate him. With Gaara, infamously stoic, hard-pressed-to-get-to-say-more-than-two-words Gaara agreeing and being friendly with him will surely convince any other doubters.” Sakura never broke eye-contact while speaking. Pain closed his eyes to consider her words.

“Hm. You have much faith in Naruto Uzumaki. You were also correct that me considering your compromise will be sufficient for your reward. While I consider your words, you will continue to stay in your apartment under watch. Please continue to visit the hospital and heal patients as you would in Konoha while I decide. You are dismissed, Sakura Haruno.”

Chapter Text

Konan escorted Sakura out of the Akatsuki base and back to her apartment. Now that she was walking around learning her environment, she realized how close her living space was to the base. Tight leash indeed . Looking to the purple-haired woman, Sakura asked, “can we get some food before going home for the night? Anything will be good.” Nodding, Konan led the way, walking leisurely to let the foreign ninja take in her surroundings. Not many people were outside in the rain, but those that were went unbothered by it. 

“Each tower has one or several commercial aspects to it and a residential one that typically houses the workers of the commercial enterprises. Towers with food tend to have brightly lit signs to help customers find them through the rain. Today we will dine on teriyaki,” Konan led Sakura to a building that had a brightly lit pink sign high in the sky, depicting a bowl of rice. The glow of the sign mixed with the water in the atmosphere made for some bright reflections throughout the area. 

“There are more food options inside, I just happen to enjoy the teriyaki here the most,” Konan said with a small smile. Sakura smiled back and told the woman that she was happy with any food as long as it wasn’t ramen. Being teammates with Naruto for years had made Sakura eat her fill of ramen for a good long while. 

Sakura was led to a restaurant on the second floor of the tower. There, Konan ordered two orders of teriyaki to go. The pink haired woman listened to surrounding conversations while they waited for their food.

There was a couple in the corner of the restaurant. The man was murmuring reassurances to the distraught woman, saying that this time wouldn’t be like last time. God wouldn’t sit by and let their child be kidnapped. Not like Lightning with her sister. No, this time God would make sure their child was found and punishment executed. Halting chakra flow to her ears to boost her hearing, Sakura turned grim-faced to Konan.

Quietly, the woman told Sakura “if you are unable to pay, the Hidden Villages turn you away, even if the situation is dire and shinobi are desperately needed. Even if a resident of that village is in danger. Here, we protect our own,” even quieter, she continued, “that couple’s daughter was abducted in Fire last week on a vacation. Lord Pain assigned trackers to the case even though they are unable to pay. They are expected back within several days,” turning to collect the food and pay, Konan left Sakura to process that information. 

Once they were safely out of hearing distance of the couple while walking back to Sakura’s apartment did she voice her question.

“Did they ask Konoha for help?”

“Of course. They immediately spoke with shinobi in the border town they were in, who then contacted Konohagakure. Without payment, assistance would be allocated to them in two weeks. By then though, the child would be long gone and Konoha wouldn’t spend long searching the nations for her. Returning to Rain, they begged the first Ame shinobi they saw. Lord Pain deployed the team, and now you are caught up.” Konan shouldn’t have been sharing the details of an Amegakure mission with an outsider, but as she spoke she saw Sakura’s deeply thoughtful expression sour with regret at hearing the lacking response from her village.

Upon returning to her apartment, Sakura murmured a thanks to Konan and entered her room, closing the door behind her. She slowly ate her food in contemplative silence. 

That means Tsunade turned down those parents' request. What the fuck . Will Naruto become that heartless? At this thought she snorted. Naruto was always looking for a new place to foster love and friendship. He values family like no one else I’ve met too . Finishing her food, Sakura left the room with the container to throw away in the kitchenette. She turned to Konan and smiled.

“You were right, that was delicious. Thank you for the food.” Konan gave her a small smile in response before closing her eyes and focusing on meditation once more. Sakura returned to her bedroom. Tonight for her exercise she practiced taijutsu drills, focusing on kicking and dodging an imaginary opponent. Once she was happy with how long she had been breathing hard and sweating, Sakura transitioned to her shower, enjoying the cleansing process. After drying off, she donned the black sleep clothes again, and went to sleep. 

When Sakura woke up in the morning, she couldn’t feel Konan’s chakra signature from the front room. Curious, she left her bedroom to explore the front part of her apartment. She startled violently to find Itachi Uchiha standing in her apartment, sharingan active, in front of her couch. He stopped her chakra infused punch with his hand and raised an eyebrow.

“God you could at least let some of your chakra be sensable so I know you’re here!”

“Hn.” He handed her a bento box. Sakura took it and returned to her room to eat and dress for the day. Dressing in her standard shinobi pants, she decided to wear one of her own long sleeve black shirts without her flak jacket today. The greenness of it was too obviously from Konoha to blend in with the village she was staying in. Securing her medical and weapons pouches in place along her hips and thigh respectively, Sakura was already beginning to look like an Ame transplant. This was only bolstered when she decided to leave her hitai-ate behind too, and instead tied up her hair in a ponytail. 

Leaving the bedroom and handing the empty bento box back to Itachi, Sakura left the apartment to head towards the hospital, sure that Itachi would follow. She went a slightly different route to the hospital today, intent on seeing more of Ame. There were metal wires connecting every building in the whole village. Sakura also saw small paper angels that didn’t get wet hanging from those wires intermittently, or above doorways. 

“God’s Angel is a good luck charm, said to ward away despair. Residents of Amegakure have a sense of safety, and hope and belief in Lord Pain, or God to the citizens, will maintain their peace. They say their prayers up to those angels and more often than not their requests are met,” here Itachi looked at her intensely with those words. 

"So Konan hears them through that paper and tells Pain what the city needs?" No response, just a blink as he looked away.

I guess people pray for health no matter what. I guess Pain is really trying to help these people. Still going about it in a weird-ass way though. Shaking her head to learn that she most likely was truly brought to the village to help its citizens. The medic cast a genjutsu to cover her byakugo seal and applied it with her tattooed seal. The purple diamond was the most obvious thing linking her to Tsunade and Konoha aside from her hitai-ate, which she wasn’t wearing. Applying the genjutsu with her seal meant no chakra was technically used as her chakra’s frequency changed to passively apply her genjutsu. Itachi watched, curiosity clear on his face.

Sakura entered the hospital. All three doctors were standing around the front desk, animatedly talking with the receptionist. Upon entering, they all turned to Sakura. As the shinobi drew near, the doctors crowded her. 

"Are you the medic that healed our patients?"

"Are you going to stay in the village?"

"Can you teach the healing arts?"

"Who are you?"

Voices swirled questions around Sakura. Holding up her hands, she answered the doctors.

"I am currently conducting business in this village and have decided to offer my services as a medic as a show of goodwill. I am going to come to the hospital and work a normal shift here daily while negotiations are underway. If the leader of this village sends ninja with good chakra control, I will teach them," deciding it wasn't quite the best idea to say that the Godaime's apprentice was working in an enemy village, Sakura came up with a new name on the fly, "my name is Asuka Moraki," here she bowed in introduction, "it's my pleasure to work here and heal for as long as I can." 

Satisfied with her response, one doctor gestured back to the patient rooms. 

"Word got out that a skilled healer is in town, we have many patients with various lung problems seeking treatment. Please help them, Ms. Moraki." Nodding, Sakura continued past the front desk and into the medical practice. Like yesterday, Sakura summoned two shadow clones that dispersed to start healing patients. The real Sakura went through to examine all the patients before also starting on clearing patient lungs. She wanted to make sure no surprise surgeries would be happening again. Finding nothing alarming, Sakura set about collecting tissues and buckets again, and started flitting from room to room, clearing lungs of fluid and scar tissue. The doctors had prepared each patient for the coming medic by informing them of how a chakra healing worked, and getting each patient into a gown. Each patient reacted similarly to Toshio upon seeing the ease with which she cleared their disease even with the forewarning. Itachi followed silently, observing with his sharingan. Her clones worked until Sakura herself stopped for lunch. She had cleared about two-thirds of the patients by that time. Turning to her silent tail, she said,

“I need a lot of food. I’m starving. My chakra hasn’t fully recovered from Kisame’s sword since I keep healing every day.” Itachi produced two bento boxes from somewhere and handed them both to her. Raising her eyebrow, she took them.

“Have you been the one making these bentos? They’re very tasty,” she tried to make conversation to no avail. Finding a room to sit down and eat in, Sakura plopped down at a table and sighed. Damn Uchiha and their constant attitudes . She dug into the first bento box, scarfing it down at inhuman speed. The second box she was able to savor and enjoy.

“Healing pneumonia seems to be functionally very easy. Why does traditional medicine struggle with it?” Itachi quietly asked his question, voice smooth. Sakura puffed her lips out while she thought about how to answer.

"Traditional medicine takes a long time to heal pneumonia, and there are several different causes of it so if the treatment isn't correct from the get-go, there will be complications. And traditional medicine can't expel all the foreign matter in the lungs easily. Healing pneumonia with medical ninjutsu is touchy too. The lungs are the most delicate structures in the body after the brain and eyes and the constant movement means a medic has to make constant adjustments to their chakra output, alongside the actual healing."

"What are you doing for each patient?"

"First I kill off whatever is causing their pneumonia. Then, stimulating their smooth muscles into wave-like motions to expel the liquid. Scrape and expel any scar tissue. Heal any damage that their coughing produces. One patient today I instead fixed the beginnings of a small abnormal growth that would have developed into a cancer by physically altering a mutated bond in her DNA. All while keeping an eye on their oxygenation levels. It is not a very complex healing but it requires the medic be able to fully immerse themselves into their patient and have flawless chakra control and decent endurance. In Konoha there would be a team of doctors around the medic to take care of some of that so it's not as draining on the chakra but here..." shrugging, Sakura told Itachi about her methods before turning back to her food. It was a simple enough procedure, it just required the utmost focus and control. Itachi looked away and didn’t talk again. 

After lunch, Sakura dealt with the worst off patients. She told the remaining ones that they were welcome to stay in the hospital overnight and she would be able to tend to them the next day, or they were welcome to return the next day for treatment. They all chose to stay overnight instead of walking home to their tower and then climbing stairs to their apartment. As Sakura left the hospital, the receptionist called out to her,

“Bless God and his Angel for hearing our prayers and sending you, Lady Asuka. Thank you for taking care of our people.”

Startled, Sakura stared at the woman. Unsure of how to respond to the small prayer, Sakura put her hands together, smiled, and bowed to the woman before continuing to walk out and into the rain. Stopping at the first building with a brightly lit sign at the top, she found a sushi restaurant. Buying several different rolls of it to go, Sakura continued on to her apartment. Not stopping in the front room, she continued to her bedroom table to eat her food. When she steps outside to throw away her garbage, Itachi is meditating on the couch. Sakura continues with her nightly routine of exercise, showering, and quickly falling asleep.

The medic continued her week in her little routine, usually not having anyone accompany her like Konan and Itachi had. She wasn’t stupid enough to think no one was watching, though. And she had been serious when talking to Pain about her allegiance for her friends' lives. Sakura still saw mostly chronic pneumonia patients at the hospital, splitting off into clones to repeat her cleansing procedure day in and day out. It was rewarding work to see her patients breathe clearly for the first time in who knows how long and relish in the sensation. There was one day in her week that Konan was her sensor again, and she followed the medic to observe, offering polite small talk when Sakura engaged with her. Once more Itachi shadowed her, not talking besides the occasional one word answer when a grunt wouldn’t suffice whenever she decided to attempt small talk. She never saw who observed her on the days Konan or Itachi weren’t with her, although she didn’t try very hard. She spent one day that week at her apartment all day and focused on relaxing, exercising throughout the day and meditating at other times. 

After her first week of staying in Ame, Kisame dropped down next to her as she approached her second week of hospital work, chakra levels higher than they’d been in a while after her day off. Sakura removed her hand from her weapons pouch as she recognized him. Staring at him with narrowed eyes, she guardedly asked, “what do you want?”

“Relax blossom, one of my friends is going to the hospital today and I figured I’d tag along with you to watch.” His answer did not help the pink-haired woman relax. Glaring at the tall man for a moment, Sakura went inside the hospital, disguising genjutsu never stopping after she applied it the first day with Itachi. Inside, she saw a man at the front desk, leaning against a walking stick. He had long, brown hair, wore simple black clothing and carried no pouch. When he spoke, his voice was velvety smooth.

“I heard there is a woman here with blessed healing hands. I was wondering if she could look at my eyes, please,” the newcomer looked in the general direction of the receptionist, who in turn looked at Sakura. Walking quickly across the foyer, Sakura approached the front desk. Upon closer inspection, the man’s breathing was fast, deep with a slight wheeze. Not good, he’s gulping for air . He was nearly blind as well. Turning to the receptionist who Sakura had learned was named Naomi, she gently but clearly instructed her to turn away other patients for now, as examining his eyes was sure to take a while. 

“Hello sir, my name is Asuka and I am a medic. Can you follow me to an exam room?” Grabbing his stick and standing upright, he informed her that he can follow people but it's easier if they talk a bit. Smiling, Sakura led the way to an exam room. Kisame followed them both.

“By the way, I never caught your name?”

“Kota.”

“It is nice to meet you Kota. I am entering the exam room now.” He followed her into the room with no problems, standing just inside the doorway until Sakura guided him and helped him on to the examination table.

“So Kota. I heard that your primary request is your eyes but I can’t help but notice that you are having difficulty breathing. I would like to examine your lungs as well, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course, if you think you can help please feel free,” the man replied.

“Thank you. I am going to place my hands on your temples to examine your eyes first. I am going to use something called chakra to do that, and it’s going to feel warm. Try your best to keep still while I am using chakra to heal you. Once I know what’s what with your eyes I will put both hands on your chest to examine your lungs,” Sakura explained what she was going to do, not wanting to startle the nearly blind man. He nodded to her words. 

Laying her hands on his face, Sakura closed her eyes and focused on the man’s optic system. As she entered his system she immediately paused, as there was a faint sense of wrongness . His chakra felt much more like a shinobi’s than a civilian’s, but she quickly dismissed that thought, looking at the man’s scrawny build and health problems. Still perplexed, she continued her examination, deciding to figure out his ailments and perhaps that would shed light on the sense of wrongness. 

His eye sockets felt pressurized, and Sakura couldn’t find a cause that would be explained by his welding background. She examined the muscles controlling and immediately around his eyes and found them rubbed raw while being highly swollen. 

That’s so strange. I haven’t seen anything like this except with Kakashi’s sharingan… How could a welder have this sort of damage without a sharingan? Wait. Something tugged at her mind, and she let her puzzlement show on her face as she thought. Wait when did he say he’s a welder? Why am I so convinced of that? Why would Kisame be friends with a welder? Kisame… Why would Kisame show himself today? To make sure I behave? What about this welder is so special? That feeling of wrongness twinged at the edge of her senses again. It almost feels like a genjutsu… Eyes opening wide as a look of shock fell across her face as she managed to stop her chakra, recoiling from the man. Kota and Kisame both stared at her, and Kota sighed.

“ Itachi . Do you realize that using genjutsu on the healer during a healing is a bad idea ? Now I see that being fucking stupid is an Uchiha trait, not just a Sasuke trait! God! I could have exploded your eyes in my shock!” Kisame was full-belly laughing by the end of her little tirade. Itachi just sighed and released his genjutsu. 

“Not many people are aware that I am nearly blind without my sharingan and it should remain that way,” he glared at her. 

“Uh huh. Whatever. Like that’s a good enough excuse! I would and am going to heal you knowing it's you. Why even bother with a genjutsu if I am going to use medical chakra on you?” Sakura was annoyed that she had been so startled to realize it was a genjutsu. Since the cause of her annoyance was seated in front of her, she scowled at him. There had been a sense of wrongness about his system the moment she touched it, but she pressed on, opting to ignore the first signs of illusion. 

Kisame was still chuckling as he said, “he’s just shy, blossom.” Itachi scowled at the both of them. 

“Lord Pain ordered me to be seen by you.” Sakura stared at him now.

“You don’t want to be seen?”

“Hn.” Sakura pursed her lips. 

“Your eyes are fucked up. It’ll take a couple sessions for me to fix and even then I can’t restore your sight without another sharingan to implant instead. If your eyes are anything to go by,” here she paused to tilt her head and narrow her eyes at him, “your lungs will be fucked too and will require a lot. Let me check.” He nodded slightly as she stepped forward with green hands. She placed her hands on his chest and sent her chakra through his shirt and into his system. It was more difficult but for a short examination she decided to deal with it. 

Itachi’s lungs were a ghost of what they should have been. Most of his airways were stiff with scar tissue, and even then that scar tissue was inflamed. Shocked, Sakura withdrew from his system. 

“You’ve been treating yourself with something for a while now that is somewhat effective, otherwise you’d be dead. Save me the hassle and tell me what it is.” Kisame hissed to hear her words about Itachi’s condition. The man in question just narrowed his eyes, sharingan active. 

“Allergy pills.” Understanding dawned on the medic’s face hearing that. 

“Hmm. Your treatment is going to be long, Itachi. I need a lab that is better than the one at this hospital to make medicine for you. In the meantime,” here Sakura paused and inhaled. Steeling herself, she looked into Itachi’s red eyes and continued, “I imagine you are more bothered by your eyes, but I can work on both today and you’ll probably notice an improvement in both areas. Turn off your sharingan please, you’re only straining them and causing more damage. I suggest you get comfortable with chakra sensing and relying on your other senses. Also, Kisame is here to make sure I don’t get any ideas, right?” Saying nothing while his partner chuckled, Itachi’s eyes faded to black. Itachi went to recline on the examination table.

“Just keep your eyes closed and relaxed while I’m working.” Sakura approached again and lay her hands on his face, one above and one below the far eye as she channeled her medical chakra into his system. 

She was besieged at the pressure in his eyes once more. Deciding to heal the immediately available problem first, Sakura began to generate new cells in each muscle controlling his eye so they would not be raw bloody surfaces rubbing against one another. That was time-consuming work. Next, she filled his eye socket with yang chakra to prompt all the muscles in the area to relax. She maintained that chakra flow for a moment to ensure they did fully relax, then halted her chakra flow and moved her hands to the eye closest to her. Repeating the healing of his muscles along this new eye, when she filled his eye socket with yang chakra again he let out a small sigh of relief at the absence of the migraine-inducing pressure.

“This next step is going to be uncomfortable and is going to make you cry,” she smirked at him, knowing he couldn’t see it but enjoying her taunting expression nonetheless. 

“Hn.”

“Kisame, get some tissues and give them to Itachi please!” Sakura chirped while she placed one hand above each eye now, and flooded both eye sockets with yang-infused chakra. She found blood and dead cells throughout the area and began guiding that material towards Itachi’s tear ducts. The procedure would likely feel like the pressure she had alleviated had returned if she hadn’t infused her chakra with yang. As it was, Itachi’s eyes did start watering and leaking from the movement of material. Sakura smiled, only taking mild sadistic pleasure at making the legendary missing-nin weep. Slowly his tears began to turn red as the blood was expelled too. Itachi dabbed at his eyes with the tissues Kisame had put into his hand. The tissues turned pink. After several minutes of guiding the material, Sakura could find nothing more to guide out. Releasing her chakra from his eyes, she stepped back from him.

“I need you to remove your shirt to work on your lungs. I wasted chakra earlier examining you through the cloth and I am more worried about your lungs, even though I am sure your eyes feel much better now.” He tugged off his long-sleeve shirt at her words, revealing a pale, chiseled torso with many scars slashing across his chest. Placing her hands flat against his chest, Sakura sent her chakra and focus to his lungs. 

There wasn’t much the medic could do for the man without surgery to clear the massive amounts of scar tissue away or the seal she would need to use his own chakra to passively apply correcting chakra to his lungs so they wouldn’t attack themselves anymore. As she filled his lungs with yang-infused chakra to soothe the inflammation, Sakura got a better sense at the scope of his disease. 

His lungs had ravaged themselves, attacking his delicate respiratory surfaces repeatedly, making them scar heavily. Most of the surfaces available for gas exchange weren’t effective anymore because of their increased thickness. The damage seemed to be centered in those small gas sacs. Itachi’s lungs also couldn’t move properly because of the stiffness of the scars. Shifting her focus to attuning his immune system and his lungs together, Sakura forcefully told his body to accept his lungs. His body did not want to adjust to her healing. Leaving pockets of healing chakra near his remaining functional alveoli to parlay with his immune system once her initial healing wore off, Sakura withdrew from Itachi’s system, having used most of the chakra she would in a normal day of hospital work between his eyes and lungs.

“Do you channel chakra to help yourself breathe?” Squinting at Sakura with his sharingan-less eyes, he nodded and pulled on his shirt.

“That’s what I thought. You need a lot of care pretty quick and I need equipment to do it. I need to talk to Pain.”

“I will deliver your message.” Itachi flew through some hand signs and disappeared in a barrage of crow feathers before anyone could say anything. Staring at one that was sitting in the center of the exam table, Sakura exclaimed, “Huh. That’s interesting.” 

“A side effect of his crow contract.” Kisame offered as way of explanation. Sakura giggled.

“Do you leave water when you shunshin?” She chortled as Kisame stared shocked before also laughing.

“No, the shark face is all my summons gave me. Helps me intimidate my prey ,” as he finished speaking his voice lowered to a growl. Sakura glared at him and put her hands on her hips. 

“I think you’re forgetting who it was that chose to not gut you, Shark Boy.” Kisame grinned and slapped her along her shoulders. 

“You’re gonna get along real well here, blossom.” At his words a paper missive arrived in the room and headed towards Sakura. Taking the paper, she saw a message from Konan:

At your earliest convenience please come to Pain’s Tower to hear Lord Pain’s decision.

Deciding that her healing of Itachi used enough chakra for the day even though it was just before lunch, Sakura left the exam room followed by Kisame. When she was passing the front desk, she stopped to face Naomi.

“That man I saw was summoned away after I finished healing him. I have business to attend to so I have to leave early today. Have a nice day, Naomi,” 

“Thank you for all you do for our patients, Lady Asuka. Goodluck in your business endeavors!” The woman cheerfully bid Sakura farewell. With Kisame on her tail she left the hospital and made her way to Pain’s Tower. There were occasional sprinkles of rain throughout the day, but the ever-present cover of clouds was gone and the sun never stopped shining. By Amegakure standards, it was a lovely summer day. 

Sakura saw many people in the streets, trying to catch some elusive sun rays. There were people from all of the Elemental Nations living in this rainy village, mingling on the streets with smiles on their faces. There were colors from all of the rainbow used in ensembles she saw. The amount of color made her miss her red qipao dress. She enjoyed walking amongst the villagers as she made her way to the center of the village. She waited for Kisame to press his ring to the seal that admitted entry into the building. Once they were inside, he took the lead to Pain’s office, opening each door with his Akatsuki ring. On the top floor, the doors to Pain’s office were open, waiting for them. 

Inside, Konan was standing behind Pain at his desk, observing the room. Itachi was withdrawn to the right side of the office, also observing what he could without using his sharingan. Kisame went to stand next to him. Pain’s eyes were fixed on her. 

“You have continued to heal my people while I have deliberated your request. Again, you have my thanks. But that is not what we are here to discuss. We are here to discuss your allegiance. At first, I found myself unsure if you were being entirely forthcoming with me. After several days of your close observation, I hesitantly decided that yes, the Hokage’s apprentice was serious about defecting. Then you decided to heal Itachi and that solidified my belief in you. You have much faith in Naruto Uzumaki, however I would like him to earn my trust. I will spare Shukaku and Kurama if Naruto can keep control at watching you defect from Konoha. You may plan it so he stands a chance. Do you accept my condition to your terms?” Purple eyes stared through her. She contemplated his words. 

“What exactly constitutes failure in terms of Naruto?”

“If he transforms into the beast, we will intervene and extract and seal the beast away then and there. If they can trust you and let you go, particularly Naruto, we will exclude Fire and Wind country from our plans. Do you accept my conditions?” 

I did say I wanted to compromise. I’ll be there to help Naruto, it’ll work out. Sakura straightened her spine and looked Pain squarely in the eyes while she dismissed her genjutsu disguising her seal.

“Yes, I accept your conditions. Konoha will never truly let go but I can make a scenario where retreat will be the only option,” Pain nodded at her words and pulled a small box from his desk. He placed it in front of the kunoichi. 

“Welcome to the Akatsuki.” Sakura took the box from the desk and opened it. Inside was Sasori’s ring, with the engraved purple jewel facing her. She looked up sharply at Pain.

“They are... difficult to procure. After your fight with Sasori I sent Itachi and Kisame to retrieve his ring. By accepting it, you are agreeing to attach yourself to me. I will always be able to locate the ring and if the need arises, I will be able to contact you through it. It will allow you to stay in this tower without problems also. If we have to seal a beast,” he continued despite Sakura opening her mouth to argue the point, “you will assist in the extraction. That is the best chance you have of keeping your friend alive should our test fail. The ring goes on your left thumb if you choose to join and wear it.”

Sakura took the ring out of the box and looked at it closely. It was a finely engraved black metal band with an oversized purple jewel seated firmly in the wide band. The jewel was engraved with “玉” while the band was engraved with what appeared to be sealing marks. Sakura took a deep breath and smiled at Pain. She slid the ring on to her left thumb. It shrunk to fit her perfectly, band narrowing slightly at the back to not hamper her range of motion. The color of her nails darkened until they were a deep shade of jade. She stared at them, blinking.

“The nails are a side effect of the many seals of the ring. I certainly didn’t convince the most dangerous shinobi in the world to all paint their nails,” he snickered a bit at his own words.

“You know, it’s always something I’ve wondered about but I never considered seals. That’s kinda funny.” Everyone in the room had different colored nails, but no two colors were the same. Sakura’s were jade, Konan’s were bright orange, Pain’s were crimson, Itachi’s periwinkle, and Kisame’s indigo. 

“Fascinating. So what happens now? We go pick on some kids? Terrorize a village?” Pain’s face darkened at her words.

“We work towards peace, so no. Now, Konan will lead you to your room where you will rest. Tomorrow I imagine you will spar with some of the members. We only have one member lacking a partner and that is Deidara. You will need to become teammates with him. Now, is that all?”

“No.” He raised an eyebrow at her and waited for her to continue.

“I need a lab with advanced medical equipment to make a treatment for Itachi. Also, he will need several surgeries to fix his lungs. Please plan our schedules accordingly with that knowledge, Lord Pain.” Now that she was a part of the Akatsuki the title wasn’t an extra effort, it was unconscious. 

“We have Orochimaru’s old lab that is still functioning that you can use. Is that all?” She smiled at him.

“For now. Thank you.” She bowed to him and when she rose, Konan was at her side ready to lead her deeper into the Akatsuki base.

Chapter Text

The women left Pain’s office and entered the Akatsuki base. It was the first time Sakura was able to focus on her surroundings in the tower. The above ground-level walls and floors of the tower looked like the standard metal and stone construction the rest of Ame was. As Konan led her deeper into the tower, the metal gave way to carved stone entirely, telling Sakura that the majority of their base was underground. Konan pointed out what each level of the base was used for as they descended the central stairwell: food and lounging, living quarters and laundry, training, and the deepest level far below the surface was Orochimaru’s old lab. 

As they entered the lab, Sakura’s senses were immediately beset by the sheer amount of dust in the room. No one had used the lab since the snake sannin had defected from the organization, that much was clear. She did see the equipment needed to make pressurized medicine though among numerous other machines, and several bookshelves full of tomes and scrolls. Confident that the sannin would have what she would need, the pink-haired medic nodded to Konan that the lab was satisfactory. Leading her back up the spiral staircase, Konan led her up to the first underground level.

Here, after a short hallway leading them away from the staircase, the space opened into a large cavern with a wide, gently sloping ceiling after passing a swinging gate. There were several refrigerators in a row along one wall that signified the start of a kitchen area within the space. Spacious counters and cabinets continued to create half-walls around the cooking area. There was an island with two stoves in the middle of the space. An exhaust was above them, edges blackened with soot. A short distance from the kitchen was a long table jutting up out of the rocky floor surrounded by ten chairs. There were several smaller tables throughout the room that could be used for playing cards, or studying scrolls. The wall of the entryway had several couches lining it with one or two cushioned chairs situated across from each couch so someone could conceivably talk to someone else that was sprawled out along a couch. It was a much more well-equipped lounging and dining area than Sakura had anticipated. 

Konan continued to the refrigerators and opened the closest one. Inside were several bento boxes and the prepared food to make more. Withdrawing two, she handed them to Sakura. 

"We do not eat as a group typically unless there is news that Lord Pain wishes to tell us all at once. He might do that soon to discuss your joining our organization with all of the members. One of us cooks food for the week according to a schedule you will be added to. Otherwise, just don't leave dishes laying around. That's the best way to make enemies around here," Konan informed her with a small laugh. As she finished speaking the gates at the front of the room burst open and a shirtless man with silver hair strode in. Sakura eyed him warily as she continued to the main dining table, sitting in a chair that had a view of the whole room.

"Finally! You better be worth the guard duty, pinkie! Do you realize how fucking boring you are? Who goes to the hospital all day every day?" Sakura decided quickly that the newcomer was quite obnoxious. 

"Don't call me pinkie, old man. My name is Sakura," she said evenly with a glare. The man laughed loudly and stepped up to the table, leaning down across from her with a grin. 

"Or what?" 

"Or I'll scalp that gray hair of yours, old man ." His grin broadened. 

"Oh, Lord Jashin likes you, Pink. You’re gonna be a fun sacrifice." He looked absolutely manic.

"Hidan-" Konan interjected as Sakura stood from the table snarling, fist clenched, arm held back, ready to swing forward to hit the annoying man. 

“Sakura is the newest member of our organization. You will do well to remember the consequences of killing one of our own.” Whatever the consequences were, they were enough to make Hidan lose some of the ferocity of his grin. Sakura scoffed.

“Thanks Konan but this idiot can’t kill me.” 

“Oh? Did we get another zombie? I can’t wait to see what you’ve got, Pink. I’m ready anytime,” Hidan licked his lips while winking at her before moving to the fridge to grab a bento box and turning to leave the room. She watched him intently while he was in the room, not trusting the wild man. Konan sighed as he left. 

“What the fuck.” Sakura fell back to her seat and focused on her food once more. It was delicious and she quickly finished the first bowl and started on the next.

“That was Hidan. He is our newest recruit aside from yourself, joining in the last year. We have many eccentric members but he is our most vocal. You will spar with him and his partner, Kakuzu as well as Itachi and Kisame throughout the next week to learn how to work alongside Deidara. However, your pairing will not receive as many missions as the rest because we would like you to spend time teaching medical ninjutsu to Ame nin as well.” Sakura was nodding at Konan’s words.

“Figures. I expect the sparring to be good to make up for being benched for a while,” Sakura snickered. Surely the sparring would be excellent, with six S+ class missing-ninja around. She didn’t include Pain in her calculations for sparring. Konan stared at her, blinking slowly before a savage grin graced her face for the first time that Sakura had seen.

“Yes, I imagine the sparring will be excellent.”

“Okay. About sparring actually. I also need you to be aware of the very real possibility that I will destabilize the ground of Amegakure if we spar down here. I don’t really want to cave the village in on top of us. Will we be sparring in another place?” Konan nodded.

“Yes. Deidara’s more passionate training can’t be underground as well. I imagine you two will become fine partners indeed.” Sakura gave Konan a tight-lipped grin that looked more like a grimace than anything else. 

I killed his teammate. How can we get along? She was dreading meeting her new teammate. Rising from the table, food finished, Sakura went to the sink to wash her dishes. She quickly dried them and placed them inside the cabinet Konan pointed to. Having eaten her fill, she was led down a level to the living quarters. There was a wide landing on the second level that opened into two wide hallways, opposite each other. There was also a closed door connected to the landing itself in front of them which Sakura guessed to be the laundry room.

"Hidan's worship can get quite loud so he is detached from the rest of us at the end of that hallway, alongside Deidara and his ‘art’," She was informed while Konan gestured to the opposite hallway she started leading Sakura down. Bright overhead lights kept the hallway from feeling like a dungeon. Konan led her past doors on either side of her before stopping before the next and last door on the right. She gestured for Sakura to open the door with her ring, so she did. Based on how far apart the doors were, Sakura guessed that they were given spacious apartment style accommodations. She was correct.

Inside her new apartment (minus kitchen, but containing a fridge and microwave) she saw what little she had left at her previous accommodations had been brought and left on her front table that had three chairs around it.

"Decorate as you see fit. The door is sealed and attuned to your ring. Deidara will be by to get you tomorrow," with that, she turned to leave Sakura alone.

"Thank you for showing me around, Konan." The purple haired woman paused and evaluated her.

"The value of your loyalty is unmatched. Amegakure will benefit from your presence. Any hostility would be counter-productive," she said with a small smile and continued out of the suite. Sakura felt warm at her words. 

Sakura studied her new home. There was a bed shoved into the far right corner of the spacious room with a small shelf recessed into the stone wall above it. The room had a high curved ceiling that had many lights to ward off the dungeon feel of the space. On the left wall were double sliding doors presumably leading into a closet. There was a small room to be used how she saw fit across the room from her closet, closer than her bed to the entryway along the wall. Her small refrigerator and microwave were tucked into the front corner of the room on her left as she entered. Sakura however, went to the single door along the back wall of her room. As she opened it she saw a luxurious bathroom. She had a jacuzzi bathtub and a standing shower with a rain-fall shower head. There was also much storage space to hold many different products. Again, she was surprised at the opulence of the room. Sakura quickly set about pouring herself a piping hot bath she could lay in for a while and relax. 

Sighing as she entered the water, she vowed to buy some bubble bath and bath oils soon. She didn't even have this nice of a bathroom in Konoha. Finishing her bathing, Sakura left her bathroom to get dressed in her gifted black sleeping clothes for the night.

I did the right thing, right? I joined the freaking Akatsuki! How can it be the right thing? But I didn't abandon my teammates, not really. I gave everything except my life to protect them… Continuing in that cycle of thinking, Sakura slowly drifted off to sleep. 

**

The next morning Sakura had just finished dressing for the day in her standard Konoha shinobi uniform minus flak jacket and hitai-ate with hair in a ponytail again when there was a knock at her door. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she pulled it open. Beyond the door she saw shining lengths of blond hair flopping over one pale blue eye with the rest also in a ponytail. Deidara. She gave him a weak smile and she unconsciously brushed some flyaway hairs behind her ear. Sakura saw his eye flash to her ring, lingering there for a moment before returning to her face. Her smile immediately vanished and she sighed. 

“Hey so, I’m sure we are going to have a big powwow with everyone now that I’ve joined and have chakra and everything, but I would like to say something to you first. Can you come inside real quick?” Sakura asked him while stepping back from the entrance to her suite, gesturing with her head that he was allowed inside. Deidara continued to say nothing as he stepped over the precipice. As he stepped closer to Sakura he held out several black and red cloaks to her. Right . Taking them, she passed the bundle back and forth in her hands as she started speaking.

“So. I need to get this off my chest if we are going to work together,” he eyed her coolly, “when I fought with Sasori I was really naive about the reality of my village and I didn’t know then what I know now. If I did, it might not have happened that way. I lost my teammate and friend not long before that fight and, well. I don’t think I could work with the person that killed her, so thanks for giving me a chance. I’m sorry about Sasori, I know you were teammates.” Deidara stared at her for a moment before sighing.

“He was my friend, un. He was the only one who would appreciate my art, even if he was explaining why everything about it was wrong. He was kind of a jerk, un. I’ve been over his death for a while now but it’s been a bit fresh lately, un,” he looked at her as he said that.

“Of course! I’m really sorry,” there was still some awkwardness when she trailed off, “let me make it up to you by helping win our spars?” He perked up at hearing her words and gave her a small upturn of his lips.

“Yeah! Let’s go get food, un,” he turned around and started to head upstairs. His hair was sprightly in his step, ponytail swaying as he walked. As they headed to the kitchen Sakura pulled on her cloak. It fit her perfectly, she noticed with surprise. It was reinforced around her torso in the same way a flak jacket was despite not appearing to be armored, and had criminally deep pockets. The long sleeves didn’t even get in her way when lifting her arms experimentally. Being a S-class missing nin, oh my god I’m a missing ninja now , definitely had luxuries. 

Sakura and Deidara sat around the long stone table with their breakfast. To Sakura, they sat in awkward silence. She looked over at Deidara several times throughout breakfast, quick to look back. After the third time, he quietly demanded,

“What is it? un”

“Er, well. You’re very beautiful in a non-binary way. I mean that as a wonderful compliment too, I’m sorry if that’s rude!” He smiled widely and genuinely at her.

“Thanks, I use they/them pronouns too.” Sakura nodded her understanding and beamed at her new teammate. Finishing their breakfast, they quickly took care of their dishes together. Deidara strode from the room, leading her up and out of their base. Speaking over their shoulder to her, Sakura enhanced her hearing slightly so she wouldn’t miss anything.

“Kakuzu said the ' annual cost of infrastructure shouldn’t be in the budget' any time I train so Lord Pain made a training ground outside of the village I can BANG! up as much as I want, un.” They mocked Kakuzu when they quoted him.

“It works out, because one good hit from me and the village would fall down on top of us down there.” Deidara paused to let her catch up and stared at her. 

“What exactly are your skills, un?”

“Weaponized medical ninjutsu, absolutely precise chakra control, earth and water elemental affinities and several combat-ready ninjutsu of each variety, chakra enhanced strength alongside skilled taijutsu, proficiency with several weapons, ranged and melee, use of poisons, my byakugo seal,” she gestured to her purple diamond, “and I’m really good with genjutsu.” He snarled a grin at her.

“We might stand a chance against Itachi and Kisame after all, un.” Her green eyes widened at hearing they were sparring with Kisame and Itachi first. They had been able to successfully abduct her, which was a serious blow to her pride. Her eyes narrowed thinking about Itachi. He’s going to use his sharingan! He’s going to undo all the work I did!

“Cha! I’m gonna kick his ass!” Sakura punched the air with a fist. Laughing slightly, he leaned close to her to concoct their plan. 

**

Walking into the arena, Sakura saw a viewing platform on top of the walls where Pain, Konan, Hidan, and a masked man she could only presume could be Kakuzu were. It was barely sprinkling on this side of the city miraculously so the spectators could see but it worked out for Deidara’s explosives as well.

“Well well, if it isn’t Stupid and Sharkboy,” she called out across the field. Sakura could hear Hidan begin to cackle maniacally from above as Kisame bared his teeth at her. They were standing in the middle of the grounds, waiting for them. As she was provoking the opposing pair, Deidara had been summoning their clay bird and rose into the air, summoning one blindingly bright explosive. They threw it between Sakura and their opponents, detonating it when it was near the ground. 

By the time their opponents and audience got their sight back, Sakura had moved to Itachi’s far side and Deidara had moved in close to Kisame. Normally the short range power fighters would take each other on but Sakura had a bone to pick with Itachi. His sharingan had been active the entire time she was in the arena. The opposing pair allowed their division strategy to work, if only to see what Sakura had planned. 

She had cast Kurenai’s perception shifting genjutsu on herself with her wrist seal during the explosion. Knowing that moving projectiles were not affected by her genjutsu once they left her grip, and seeing his perception not match with the angle any projectiles launched at him would give away her jutsu. That limited her weapons options to melee weapons and her ninjutsu, at least for now. My genjutsu will only hold for one attack at most against Itachi fucking Uchiha , and she grabbed her kunai that was laced with a paralyzing agent and charged at him.

As she was close, she swung at him with her kunai with her right hand. He dodged perfectly and did not dodge wide like she had anticipated, seeing through her illusion. So much for that route . As Itachi was dodging backwards she reinforced the chakra in her leg and foot, infusing it with earth chakra and kicked the ground, creating a crevasse that was rapidly spreading right towards him. His foot was caught in it. She threw her laced kunai at him while he was off balance, but he dodged easily, using a substitution jutsu to appear close behind her, kunai of his own withdrawn. Whirling around, Sakura used the chakra string she had connected to her laced kunai and whipped it directly at herself with all her strength as Itachi stepped forward and grabbed her wrist, brandishing his own kunai. As her weapon was about to pierce her back, she disappeared into a puff of smoke, the shadow clone Itachi had been fighting dismissing itself. He started dodging as he realized she had managed to deceive him but he was slightly too slow and Sakura’s laced kunai too close. His main arm was nicked by the blade and paralyzing agent. He began to move towards Kisame, senses alert for any minute changes. 

**

Sakura sat nestled several meters below the surface of the ground, sensing the movements of Kisame, Itachi, and her shadow clone on the surface. She didn’t know how long her shadow clone would last for, but she had given the clone one of her two non-lethally laced weapons to try and slow Itachi down so she could deal with him properly. She had entered the earth in the middle of the arena while the plan was to keep the fighting near opposite sides. In the center, Sakura wove a new, experimental genjutsu that spanned the whole length of the arena and would be activated the moment anyone stepped into it. This new genjutsu targeted all the ways she knew of that Itachi adapted his body with chakra, giving him the sensation of suffocation as his sense of his supplemental chakra use disappeared. She poured all of her anatomical and medical knowledge into the illusion. She finished the jutsu right as she felt her shadow clone disappear, having its memories flash through her mind. A savage grin crossed her lips as she realized she had most likely paralyzed Itachi’s main weapon arm. She sensed him crossing the arena. Sneaking through the ground to avoid detection, Sakura got into position just beyond her genjutsu wall, staying at least a meter deep in the soil so Itachi’s sharingan wouldn’t detect her chakra. 

**

Itachi warily made his way to Kisame and Deidara, katana withdrawn and held defensively in his wrong hand, straining to sense Sakura for even a moment. He saw his teammate use Samehada to drain Deidara’s bombs of chakra before detonation. Whenever that didn’t work, he used water ninjutsu to protect himself from the explosions. He noticed that the underside of the clay bird was shredded and that it was much lower to the ground than in the beginning of the match. Kisame wasn’t fighting at full power, just toying with Deidara, whittling their chakra down as their blows were easily nullified.

Still trying to detect Sakura, Itachi saw a shimmer in the air as he stepped over the halfway point in the arena. Suddenly his lungs constricted, all of his chakra circling in the area seemingly halting. His senses lost some sharpness at the same moment. Almost dropping his sword, he wheezed while he struggled to get air into his lungs, unable to get precious air. All eyes in the arena turned to Itachi as he wheezed, struggling with a spasming chest. Realizing his mistake and cursing his slowness to realize, he released the genjutsu affecting his body but was still panting for air. As he did so he was sprayed with mud as Sakura exploded out of the surface just in front of him. Her hands were open and outstretched, reaching towards him. He used a shurikenjutsu against her and managed to deeply cut her hip and graze her cheek. She still didn’t meet his gaze while managing to dodge most of his attack without stopping hers.

“Sakura.” She faltered for a moment in her attack and her eyes snapped to his. Immediately she was caught in his Tsukuyomi. 

**

She fell into knee-deep water in a red environment. Sakura noticed that she was not caked in mud in the Tsukuyomi, unlike reality. She was absolutely alone, and saw no variation in the environment at all. Damn it! That’s the first time he’s said my name and it was a trap! Cursing his smooth voice, Sakura yelled for Itachi. Suddenly, he appeared directly before her standing on the water. He looked down at her with an unreadable expression.

“Are you a spy?” Sakura narrowed her eyes at him and scoffed.

“Are you a spy?” She shot back.

“Yes.” He replied simply with no hesitation. Confusion filled Sakura’s face.

“Wait, really? Who are you a spy for?”

“Danzo and the Third Hokage.” Sakura began cursing loudly and creatively. Itachi watched in silence, one eyebrow raised.

“Let me guess then, you haven’t been able to meet up with your contact for Konoha in over a year, right?” The normally expressionless man showed confusion on his face at her words.

“How did you know that?”

“Danzo has been put into maximum security prison for treason. It was discovered that he harvested sharingan from your clan members the night of the massacre,” she paused as she watched the uncharacteristic pain cross Itachi’s face, “It is assumed that he orchestrated the massacre for his own gains, although Tsunade is having difficulties finding documentation. I’m sorry. His secret organization called ROOT was discovered too and all members are undergoing intense rehabilitation. You were likely meeting with one of them. He was caught plotting against Tsunade.”

“Why did you defect?” His voice was much quieter now. Sakura allowed her voice to fill with emotion.

“Because I realized Konoha doesn’t care. People kill for the village, even die for the village, and for what? For it to keep on killing and turning away people who need genuine help. Fuck,” Sakura’s eyes were burning bright now as she made eye contact with Itachi, “I don’t even think Tsunade knows your true role. What sort of village throws away one of their most valuable assets? What sort of village orders the complete destruction of a clan from a child?” She paused to breathe deeply for a moment.

“Konoha doesn’t need me anymore. And I need to help people now, and I mean truly help people.”

“Hn. You chose a terrorist organization to help the world?” She laughed faintly.

“Looks that way, doesn’t it? But my goal and Lord Pain’s are the same, we just have different beliefs about how to get there.” Itachi considered her words. 

“Alright. Please keep my true purpose here a secret.” Sakura smiled at Itachi.

“Of course. Now about this spar…” she trailed off.

“Hm? Finish it however you wish, I am done with it. I have much to think about,” his words just had a moment to sink in before the Tsukuyomi was released. 

**

Sakura was thrust back into reality and she realized her hands hadn’t even fallen down a bit, her experience in the sharingan taking less than a second. Itachi was still breathing heavily, recovering from her genjutsu. Refilling her hands with medical chakra, she continued to reach for Itachi’s face. One of his eyes was bleeding.

“I told you to give your eyes a break, dummy! You will go completely blind faster using your sharingan all the time!” Sakura placed a glowing hand against his face and Itachi slumped over immediately. She could hear Hidan absolutely screaming his head off, but she ignored his outbursts while she turned back to Kisame.

“This match is over, I have your partner,” she sneered at this and raised Itachi by his hair, holding a kunai to his throat. Kisame was staring at her with shock on his face.

“Interesting. Impressive, blossom. I surrender.” Deidara’s clay bird poofed out of existence and they gracefully leapt to the ground.

“Yeah! I can’t believe that actually worked! un” They were approaching Sakura and Itachi now. 

“So what did you do to him, blossom?” 

“A targeted genjutsu against his physical weaknesses, which I know very well having examined them myself. That genjutsu is what stopped him to begin with. Just now I slowed down a section of his brain so he wouldn’t have control over his body. But he can still hear us. Thank you for testing this new style of genjutsu for me, Itachi. You pissed me off by ruining all my hardwork on your eyes!” She placed her hand over his hitai-ate, fingers in his hair as she reallowed him control over his own body. Maintaining her connection with chakra reinforced strength when he tried to leave from under her hand, Sakura burned away the paralytic that was still in his system. She pointed at his bleeding arm and he lifted it for her to reach. She knit the skin and blood vessels back together easily. As she finished that, their audience from above descended and approached. Hidan ran ahead of the group, yelling at Sakura.

“Pinkie! You are so worth the guard duty! That was fuckin’ awesome! Let’s spar right now and meet Lord Jashin together!” Sakura removed her hand from Itachi, who rose up and withdrew from her, and looked back to Kisame and Deidara.

“Do either of you need healing?” When they shook their heads, she turned her attention to the cut on her hip. She had just started healing it when Hidan swatted at her hand. 

“What the fuck are you doing? Leave it and suffer for Lord Jashin, Pink. It’s beautiful!” Sakura looked up at Hidan with disgust on her face when Deidara reached over and grabbed the hand Hidan was batting at her with. The cultist jerked away, but the blond didn’t let go.

“DON’T touch me with your freaky hands!”

“Let her heal herself, un.”

“But-AGHH GROSS” Hidan tore his hand from Deidara’s, whose hand that had been grabbing Hidan was retracting its tongue. Sakura giggled as she continued to heal her hip. The cut on her face was small enough she didn’t need to use her hands to heal it. Once she was finished with her healing, she turned to face her spectators with a raised eyebrow.

“Well?” 

Konan offered, “I stand by my words last night,” to which Pain nodded. Surprised that Konan had shared her sentimentality with Pain, Sakura looked to Kakuzu. She was aware that Hidan was impressed and wanted to spar immediately, as he never actually stopped talking. The only thing that changed was the volume of his voice. 

“Hmph. You’re going to cause just as much property damage as them,” he jerked his head to Deidara, “so we’ll see how worth it you are, kunoichi.” Kakuzu was as pleasant as Hidan, but in entirely different ways. A quiet voice cut through,

“You have much experience against visual kekkei genkai.” Sakura turned to face Itachi, who thankfully did not have his sharingan activated.

“Yes, I sparred against a Hyuuga somewhat often to learn my weaknesses against them. Also having Kakashi Hatake as my sensei and Sasuke as my teammate taught me a lot about the sharingan.”

“Hn.” Kisame chuckled. It was not everyday that Itachi Uchiha was bested, sharingan knowledge or not.

“Are you sure we can’t spar today, Pink?” Sakura’s face twitched.

“ I told you to call me by my name, stupid old man ,” she smiled sweetly at him.

“And I wanna fucking spar , pinkie,” he gave her a wicked smile as he called her ‘pinkie’ again. Sakura ground her teeth together and looked at Deidara. They looked drained, as they had to maintain a constant barrage of explosions against Kisame to keep the opposition divided. 

“Yes I’m sure. But I will be sure to scalp you tomorrow, old man.”

“You fucking better, bitch.” Sakura narrowed her eyes at the infuriating man. With a stroke of wisdom, she realized that he enjoyed pushing people’s buttons and decided to walk away, no matter how infuriating he was to her.

“I’m going to the hospital before I go work in the lab. Itachi, please meet me there later tonight.” With that, she walked away. 

“Lord Jashin, Pink, don’t be so boring now!” She kept walking. Kakuzu chuckled and said, “Look at that, she’s smart enough to ignore you.”

Sakura stopped by the base on her way to the hospital and quickly ate two bento boxes. Washing and drying her dishes, she summoned a clone to clean Orochimaru’s lab and made her way to the hospital. The rain in the village rinsed away the blood and mud on her face before she arrived. Once she did arrive at the hospital, Naomi was startled to see her in a dirty Akatsuki cloak for a moment before a broad grin spread across her face.

“Lady Asuka-” Sakura interrupted her, “My name is Sakura. Negotiations are complete, as you can see.” She gestured to her cloak. 

“I came by today to see if there are any immediate patients that I should tend to today before I need to return.”

“Of course! You are too kind, Lady Sakura. There is a young boy that was brought in by his mother from the country. He has a broken leg and they are farmers. Him being incapacitated during the harvest season will severely limit his family. His leg was set and cast earlier, and they are resting in room four before traveling home tomorrow.” Nodding, Sakura gave Naomi a small smile and moved to the room with the small family. She knocked on the door. It swung open to reveal a gaunt woman with wide brown eyes and frazzled, long brown hair. Sakura smiled at her and bowed slightly.

“Hello, my name is Sakura and I am a medic. I apologize for my dirty appearance, I came to the hospital directly after training. I heard that your son has a broken leg and I would like to heal it.”

“You are the one with blessed hands?” The woman’s voice was higher than she expected, and soft. Sakura nodded, and she was let into the room. The boy was watching her with wide eyes he clearly inherited from his mother. 

“Hello, I would like to heal your leg. Is that alright?” The boy nodded to her. She smiled at him. “Thank you. I will be using medical chakra to heal you. It will feel warm while I use it and it won’t take long. I need to remove your cast to use it, but once I am done you won’t feel any pain in your leg anymore.” 

“That’s okay, my cast is really itchy anyways!” He said to her. Sakura removed his cast, releasing the leg underneath. Placing her hands upon his leg, she found a clean break of his shinbone’s head. Prompting his cells to fuse the pieces of bone back together while infusing her chakra with yang, she was finished a couple minutes later. The boy experienced no pain during the procedure. When Sakura removed her hands, his leg was no longer bruised. He leapt from the bed and stood on his own two feet.

“Wow! Thank you!” He beamed up at her. The boy’s mother gave a wordless cry at seeing her son stand again. She fell to her knees, thanking the medic.

“Thank you Lady Sakura! Now Ichirou can help us through the harvest season that’s almost upon us! You have saved our family from ruin! Thank you so much!” The woman was weeping now.

“It is my duty to heal whoever is in need. I am honored to have been useful to your family.” She bowed to the mother and Ichirou. “Please have safe travels tomorrow.” Sakura left the room, leaving the cheerful sounds of a child’s merriment. She smiled as left the hospital once more, waving to Naomi. 

She beelined it back to base, eager to take a shower. Quickly unlocking all the doors she needed to navigate through to get to the central stairwell with her ring, Sakura descended to the second level and practically flew to her room. Once she was inside her room she immediately shucked her dirt encrusted clothing and entered her bathroom. She set the water in her shower to just below scaldingly hot and entered the spray. Sakura scrubbed the dirt out of her hair and off her person, relishing in the sensation of water running uninterrupted down her body before lathering it up with soap. Already having placed her new hair care products in the shower, she lathered her hair up with her rose scented shampoo. She made sure to use her matching scented conditioner. She could enjoy wearing scents again now that she wasn’t deep in a mission. It was then that her clone dismissed itself, having cleaned the lab. It amused her immensely to discover that her clone had cursed her for the task many times. Making sure to rinse fully, she switched off the water. As she climbed out of the shower she reached for a towel to dry herself. 

Going outside to her room, Sakura pulled on her black sleeping clothes again and picked up her muddy uniform and cloak. She left her room to enter the laundry room off from the landing. She shouldn’t have been surprised at the numerous high-calibre washing machines and dryers there were in the room, but she was. She set her clothes in the highest intensity cycle and left the laundry room, closing the door behind her. Sakura descended the stairs, down to the lab. 

Once she was there she saw how good a job her clone did with her own two eyes. Satisfied that she would be able to work in that space, she pulsed her chakra in the Konoha code for ‘I’m ready’, certain that Itachi would recognize it and come down to the lab. While she waited for him, she found a medical needle to withdraw blood alongside several vials. As she finished gathering her supplied she heard the door open and turned around. 

Chapter Text

Sakura saw Itachi entering the lab, thankfully without his sharingan activated. 

“Thanks for coming down. I have a couple theories about your illness that I need some blood and tissue to test them.” She could see that the eye that had been bleeding earlier was still inflamed. She sighed and led Itachi to a chair. He had been standing in the entryway, unsure of where he was needed. 

“But before I do that I guess I’ll help your eyes again.” He nodded and reclined in his chair as best he could. Sakura lay one hand over each eye and filled his eye sockets with yang chakra. As she did so, she noticed that the damage to the one eye that had been bleeding was much worse. 

“You used the mangekyou sharingan earlier, right?” He made an affirmative noise in response. 

“Do you have different jutsu in each eye?” There was a slight pause before he answered.

“Yes.” 

“Hm. The eye you used today is significantly more damaged than the other. It looks like your eyes can handle the regular sharingan in spaced out intervals for the most part but your mangekyou caused extensive damage for even such a short use of it.” She stopped her yang chakra and grabbed some tissues she had miraculously had the foresight to bring down with her and put them into Itachi’s hand. 

“Here. I’m going to heal the muscles of your eye then expel foreign matter again.” She placed her hands back around his left eye and entered his system. The muscles she had meticulously healed yesterday were bloody ribbons again. His chakra pathways had had such a burden of chakra that they tore the surrounding tissues. She started healing them again, and eventually curiosity got the better of her.

“Does it hurt to use your mangekyou?” 

“Every mangekyou is rough on its host, until they receive an Eternal Mangekyou.”

“And that’s when you transplant mangekyou from someone else?” Itachi hesitated.

“That is not supposed to be known outside of the clan. I’m not sure how you have knowledge of that procedure.” His tone was suspicious.

“Ah, there have been several members of the Hyuuga clan who secretly went blind and needed a transplant. They don't get a boost to their kekkei genkai as far as I am aware, but they have a stockpile of eyes from deceased clan members just in case. Although, from seeing the damage in your eyes and Kakashi’s eye, it seems like the sharingan is much more damaging than the byakugan.” 

“I was not aware that the byakugan damaged the users eyes as well. For the Uchiha, most clan members did not possess the mangekyou sharingan. When one goes blind because of it, only by receiving another mangekyou from an immediate family member will cure them.” Sakura’s healing chakra paused. 

“I see. Then that’s another reason for Sasuke to target you until he is informed of Danzo,” she paused for a beat, “I’m going to expel the built up blood and inflammation now.” 

“Hn.” Sakura focused her chakra into gently guiding all foreign material out of Itachi’s eyes. His right eye did not have much, while his left eye did. She gently asked, “would you want to get a transplant if you could, if it was possible without Sasuke’s eyes?” He did not answer her. Once she was done Itachi’s tissue was pink and she stepped back from him. 

“Okay, that should feel better. Now I need you to roll up a sleeve so I can withdraw some blood.” He obliged and rolled up his left sleeve past his elbow. Sakura put on gloves and swabbed the area with iodine. Finding and piercing his blood vessel was easy, Itachi had little if any body fat. The vials of blood she needed were filled quickly, Itachi rhythmically flexing his hand to help with the removal process. Removing the needle and healing the small wound with her finger tip, Sakura continued to put Itachi’s blood in a test tube carrier and placed it into the refrigerator in the lab. 

“Now, I need a sample of your lungs. I can excise a small piece of non-functional scar tissue, navigate it to your bronchial tubes and then quickly extract it through your mouth and throat with a chakra string. It’ll feel unpleasant. Normally I’d offer a genjutsu to avoid the sensation, but I’m conserving chakra for my spar tomorrow. Sorry. I can go get Konan if you want-”

“It is fine, continue.” He did not hesitate to remove his shirt and recline again in his chair. Sakura blinked at the abrupt sight of his muscular chest before continuing. She placed her hands on either side of his heart, sensing the most scar-tissue laden part of his lungs. Eventually, she found a part that was essentially unmoving; it was so burdened with extra tissue and inflammation. 

“Alright, I’m going to cut away a small piece and heal your lungs as I go.” She cut away the thickened alveolar surface, fueling growth of new, functional tissue in its place. Sakura started moving the small piece of flesh through the thickened corridors of Itachi’s lungs. Once it was to a main branch of his respiratory system, she stopped her chakra and looked up to see him watching her with his regular sharingan active. Her own eyes narrowed and she almost growled.

“It’s like you enjoy testing my limits, Uchiha.” His lips curled into a faint smirk. 

“Lord Pain ordered me to assess your medical capabilities. Every other healer I have been to for my lungs has declared them beyond healing, and since you are sure I can be treated, I am curious. So far you have much more chakra control and finesse than anyone else I have been treated by.” His voice rumbled under her hands. Sakura’s jaw dropped open and fought back a flush at the compliment from the stoic man. 

“Fine, but rest your eyes once I’m done. Seriously. Open your mouth slightly, and when I tell you to, cough please.” He opened his mouth minutely. She placed her hand in front of his mouth and sent a chakra string down into his lungs, attaching to the small piece of tissue waiting for her. 

“Alright, cough please and keep coughing.” He immediately coughed, likely having been fighting the urge the whole procedure. Sakura rapidly retracted her chakra string, pulling the flesh up and out of Itachi. She quickly placed it onto a petri dish and covered the sample with ethanol, and covered the dish. Sakura removed and disposed of her gloves, moving to the sink to wash her hands. 

“Alright, that’s all for tonight. Thank you for cooperating for your treatment.” 

“Hn.” He exited the lab and she rolled her eyes. Moody Uchiha… Closing down the lab, Sakura climbed the stairs to the second level and moved her laundry to a dryer and ran it. After that she went to her room where she quickly fell asleep. 

**
The next day Sakura dressed and finished her ensemble with her cloak again. I got red clouds instead of a qipao . Snorting at her thought, she went and received her laundry and brought it back to her room. She quickly sorted the clothes and put them into the chest of drawers that was inside one side of the closet. Leaving her room once again, Sakura climbed the stairs and entered the only room on the first floor. She found Deidara eating breakfast and Kisame sitting on a couch near the entrance.

“Blossom! You have Hidan worked up into a frenzy. Be careful,” with that, Kisame left the room. Sakura stared after him, confused. 

“It’s true, un. He hasn’t been so annoying ever, I don’t think. Kakuzu will disagree with me,” Deidara snickered. 

“What about Hidan makes Kisame worried about me? That seems uncharacteristic, don’t you think?” Deidara hesitated.

“If Hidan gets ahold of your blood, he’ll start his ritual. Jashu or whatever has him really riled up and he might not remember that you’re mortal and he’s immortal, un. Kakuzu’s an old grouch who can’t be defeated by most fatal blows either, he has five hearts.” Sakura pursed her lips hearing this. 

“I’m confident in my healing abilities.” They stared at her a moment before nodding slowly. 

“I agree with Kisame though. Be careful, un.” Sakura nodded her understanding. Working together to clean their dishes, the pair swiftly traveled to the arena outside of the village. When asked about a potential plan on the way, Deidara had informed her that Kakuzu’s and Hidan’s fighting styles would make a plan difficult to stick to and it might distract them. In other words, it was about to be an all out brawl with very high level opponents. When they arrived at the arena, she saw that like yesterday, Konan and Pain were on the viewing platform, but today they were accompanied by Kisame and Itachi. She could see a faint glow of his red eyes through the light rain as he watched the arena. Sakura sighed. Deidara was summoning their clay bird again. 

“Finally! Pinkie you owe me some suffering!” Hidan launched himself at her, scythe at the ready, cackling maniacally the entire time. Her teammate grabbed her and pulled her atop the white bird and rose to the sky just before Hidan reached where they had been standing. 

“It’s going to be difficult for me to block that scythe without letting myself be cut, all of my weapons are too short,” she mused out loud. She cast Kurenai’s genjutsu upon herself now, out of sight of her opponents. Deidara watched with approval on their face, keeping the real her in their sights.

“Yeah. I’ll try to keep him off you, un.” 

“Thanks,” she threw them a warm smile before leaping off the white bird and reinforcing her leg as much chakra as she could, she kicked the ground hard as she landed. The entire ground of the arena buckled before collapsing into a crater. The walls shook with the movement of the ground, making the spectators solidify their stance on the wall with chakra. Sakura was speeding towards Kakuzu now, while Deidara managed to split Hidan off, away from her fight with well-timed and placed explosives from above. They had two clay clones fighting on the ground as well, forcing Hidan back every time he tried to lunge to the medic. Kakuzu stood in a defensive stance, ready to block Sakura but missing by over eight inches. She smiled with unadulterated pleasure at seeing the shock cross his eyes to realize he had been deceived by her genjutsu as she punched through his heart. Rage crossed his face.

“That was a mistake, kunoichi. Release!” He released her genjutsu and wires began to extend from his face and shoulders, extending into several protruding tentacles. Massive blobs of wire detached from Kakuzu completely. Sakura had disengaged and retreated as the wires had begun to appear. The masks Deidara had explained contain his extra hearts dispersed into the detaching wire forms. Sakura produced two shadow clones to help deal with the four additional adversaries. Then Sakura and her clones were dodging wires, kunai, and fists as she tried to get close to either Kakuzu or any of the masks. Kakuzu and his creations were fast, and the seemingly never ending wires she had to dodge made it a slow dance. Sakura could not get close to another opponent easily so she watched them. Each mask had a different elemental affinity.

Eventually, the mask she had figured out had only a water affinity launched a large water stream at her. She was able to use her own water affinity to run upstream as if there was no water, and charged at the mask. Sakura reinforced her skin when wires began to speed towards her in the water so they wouldn’t pierce her flesh. It took a lot of chakra circling the front of her body to protect herself. She gave the mask a chakra-reinforced punch and it shattered. The amorphous mass of wires she had been fighting stopped moving, the water stream she was in stopped to a trickle the moment a crack appeared in the mask. Kakuzu cursed at her as the mask broke. Unleashing more wires from within his body, he charged at Sakura alongside the rest of his masks. 

His lightning mask was giving her difficulty with its constant barrage of attacks, and while she was distracted dealing with an elemental attack from it, he sent several different projections of wire at her. One of them grazed her cheek. Kakuzu snarled under his mask at her, and moved that piece of bloody wire within his multiple writhing tentacles. Nothing obvious had changed as his wires were always moving. He sent the bloody wire to Hidan via one of the writhing protrusions, who had been trying unsuccessfully to cross the battlefield as Deidara was blocking him from the sky. They could not summon a large enough explosion to sever the tentacle from Kakuzu’s body without harming Sakura, who was very close to him. 

**

As Hidan saw Kakuzu’s wires coming in his direction, inserting a piece of itself into his pocket, he grinned, knowing the kunoichi breaking two hearts was enough to make him want to inflict maximum suffering on her. He began to laugh uncontrollably, and dove into Kakuzu’s wires. They dug into many points of Hidan’s body, drawing blood.

He was flung away from Deidara’s barrage of explosives, over Sakura a fair distance away from the fight, across the arena. Hidan made sure to land on his stomach, so he could swipe some of his blood from his wounds into the symbol of Lord Jashin as he rose. All he needed to do now was to taste her blood, but first he would educate the woman on why she was chosen to suffer.

**

Sakura watched as Hidan was flung to the far side of the arena. He landed hard on his front. She glanced behind herself to make sure Deidara was fending off Kakuzu. They were. Turning back to face Hidan, she saw he was already standing, staring at her with a savage grin. 

“You have tasted true suffering, Pink. That is why Lord Jashin has been calling for your blood so fucking loudly. You already know . And you’re still standing. Give yourself to Lord Jashin and he may even bless you!” Her eyes were wide as she witnessed the true extent of Hidan’s devotion. 

“That’s what you worship? Suffering?” Sakura scoffed. “As if I could believe in that!” She looked at Hidan with disgust evident on her face. 

“I don’t worship suffering. I use suffering to worship Lord Jashin. Only He is omnipresent and He is the God of Destruction. Only through the shared screams of death may a heretic like you know Him!” Hidan threw the bloody wire into his mouth as he leaned down to grab his spear that had been thrown with him. As soon as he began to move, Sakura had started to run towards him.

**

He threw the bloody wire into his mouth and Hidan felt his curse envelop his body, feeling like a warm second skin, heightening any pain he was already in. He took a breath as he gripped his spear, whipping upright and launching it directly at the kunoichi. She had made some leaps to cross the distance between them while he was finishing his preparation, but his spear shooting across the space made her vault to the side, though dodging easily. Sakura continued to race towards him. Hidan could only grin in triumph for a moment.

“You’re not the only one who can use chakra strings, bitch!” 

“NO!” Someone screamed loud enough to be heard over Hidan’s bloodfrenzy, but it was too late. He tugged his spear back towards himself, blade first. Sakura was again in the path of the spear, and dodged it easily again. Hidan cackled hideously and jumped, angling his body just so . It entered his body through his abdomen, piercing his intestines, diaphragm, heart, airways, and finally spine before exiting through his neck. Hidan fell to the ground with a blissful groan, panting in dying breaths that echoed Sakura’s after a sickening wet noise a good distance away.

** 

The spectators almost immediately appeared around Sakura. The woman was dazed and still assessing her fatal injuries. Her hands fluttered over her torso uselessly. Konan was looking at Hidan’s severely injured form with murderous rage clear on her normally placid face. Kisame was frowning down at the injured woman, concern clear on his face. Deidara landed near the group from above and rushed to the woman.

“What did you do?!” They cried. “We can’t heal her! un” 

Itachi’s sharingan was able to read her lips as she shakily formed a tiger sign in her right hand and mouthed:  Ninja Art Byakugou Release: Creation Rebirth .

Immediately Sakura’s chakra signature increased in intensity tenfold. Her diamond seal on her forehead began expanding to encompass her whole body with black lines. Her wounds began to steam as they healed at inhuman speeds. She vomited and coughed out blood and toxic waste that had leaked from her wounds, her body expelling it as fast as possible. 

Her onlookers watched with awe on their faces as her fatal wounds healed before their very eyes. Pain murmured, “so this is Tsunade Senju’s infamous kinjutsu. Fascinating.”

**

Once she was able to stand and breathe again she was itching for payback. She looked around and saw everyone watching her. Sakura looked at Konan with a sweet smile.

“What is the punishment for killing one of your own?” The woman hesitated.

“Because I just lost a year of my life healing myself from that and I would like to rip Hidan apart.”

“That is exactly the punishment.” Sakura blinked at Konan’s words before a savage grin split her face. 

“You may keep him dismembered for as long as you wish,” Pain informed her.

“Good. Thank you, Lord Pain!” Sakura ran over to where Hidan lay with his measured breathing. He looked shocked and then enraged to see her standing above him.

“You dare stop the suffering we share-” Sakura grabbed the spear that was still sticking out of his abdomen and flung him with all of her chakra-infused strength off the spear and towards a wall of the arena. When Sakura had picked up the spear there had been some tugging damage along its line within her own body that had regenerated itself, visible to her onlookers via steam, but that pain disappeared before Hidan hit the wall with a satisfying, echoing crack that likely resounded through all of Amegakure. The wall he hit crumbled around him. Sakura dismissed her Creation Rebirth technique and rubbed out the symbol of Jashin in the dirt. 

Sakura ran over to Hidan and saw that all of the bones in his body were broken after the impact against the wall. She picked up his mangled body and threw it a short distance away from the rubble heap. There she pulled his limbs straight and healed his skull, neck, and shoulder bones. That made cutting his head off easier. 

“Fucking hell, bitch. Lord Jashin loves you.” The head said weakly to her. She flicked it with some chakra-infused strength in the forehead, cracking his skull. 

“Stop. You’re going to help me make a new jutsu now. You’re going to earn your body back, asshole.” Hidan grinned at her.

“This isn’t quite scalping me but I’ll take it. You’re fun, Pink.” Sakura rolled her eyes and grabbed a chunk of cloth from Hidan’s body and shoved it into his mouth to get him to stop talking. She returned to the group, everyone still watching her with various expressions ranging from amusement to startlement at her actions. 

“What? He started it. Now he can suffer for me instead of Jashin to help me make a new jutsu.”

“What would that new jutsu be?” Pain curiously watched her as he asked his question.

“One that if I tried to develop on anybody else I would probably give them a fatal stroke. I don’t have to worry about healing this jerk,” she swung Hidan’s head forward, as if the rest of the group wasn’t aware of it. 

“Are we done with this spar?” She asked with her free hand on her hip. Kisame threw his head back and full belly laughed as Kakuzu withdrew his wires and masks.

“Yes. Your regenerative jutsu is formidable. Your bounty is deceivingly low.” It was the closest admission to strength she was likely to receive from the reticent man. 

“Alright. Dei, I’m gonna take this,” she raised Hidan’s head, “to the lab and start the beginning of my research. I’ll see you at dinner, yeah?” They nodded at her with a small smile.

“That sounds good, un.”

“We should all attend dinner tonight, even Hidan, to discuss several things as a group.” Pain added. Everyone looked at him then nodded their understanding, except Hidan who could not nod. Sakura raised his head to look into his eyes. He looked very annoyed with her. She removed the bandages from his mouth and spoke before he started to curse her.

“Do you need food and water?”

“I need food. My body can die from malnutrition and then I’d have to grow another one which could take like, fucking forever!” 

“How often do you need to eat?” He narrowed his eyes at her.

“Preferably as often as you. I don’t know the specifics of it. Lord Jashin keeps me alive for the most part.” His answer was vague.

“Alright. You can eat once a week then.”

“You’re surprisingly ruthless.”

“You took a year off my life.” She let her anger show on her face.

“Touché” He looked like he would have shrugged had he had a body. Sakura looked around to the spectators that were still gathered around her.

“Can one of you carry his body back to the base and leave it on the first floor please?”

“Sure, blossom” Sakura gave a small smile to the tall shark man. 

“Thanks. I’m off to start my research!” She left the arena with Hidan’s head. 

**

Sakura showered and changed out of her blood-soaked clothes before going to the lab, leaving Hidan’s head upside down in a corner of her room, facing away. When she entered the lab she put Hidan’s head onto a large observation plate on the table so she wouldn’t get his blood on her workspace. She removed the cloth gag from his mouth.

“Okay bitch, what jutsu can you make with just my head?” Sakura sighed. Working with Hidan meant an easily accessible, indestructible test subject. But one that was just so incredibly rude and annoying. 

“I’m going to make you have strokes and seizures and you’re going to describe exactly how they feel. I’m going to monitor your brain with chakra while they happen and take notes on what happens physically.” Hidan was gaping at her. 

“This fucking sucks!”

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have tried to kill me!” She was slightly regretting her opportunity to create harmful medical ninjutsu, only because Hidan was her company. She told him as much too. 

“Yeah well you’re no ray of sunshine either, Pinkie! You know, I’ve been nothing but nice to yo-” With a frustrated groan, Sakura lay her hand on his forehead and zapped his brain with her chakra, maintaining her non harmful medical chakra in his brain to observe his confusedly firing brain cells. He stopped talking immediately upon introducing her chakra into his system. It was very difficult to determine if he was having an absent seizure or something different without more than his head.

Damn. Just below the ribs should be easy enough… This is going to be so tedious. 

Hidan’s seizure was longer than most naturally occurring ones and once it was finally done, his eyes slowly focused back on her. He glared at her.

“What the fuck?!”

“Describe what you felt.”

“Bad! What the fuck do you want me to say?”

“Were you aware you were having a neurological problem? Did you feel anything? Did you see anything? Hear? Taste? Smell? I need details, Hidan!”

“Lord Jashin is testing me…” the head muttered. “I saw auras and felt like fucking puking but I don’t have any guts. There was nothing but how nauseous and weightless I felt, colors, and Lord Jashin to witness my suffering,” Hidan grimaced. Sakura scribbled notes down furiously. She continued to give Hidan seizures in different ways over the next several hours until she saw him blink several times and then not speak. 

“How did that one feel?” she prompted him. 

“I’m still waiting for you, slow bitch…” Hidan trailed off because of Sakura’s grin. “What now?”

“I’ve figured out how to do what I need I think. Let’s go see about food and what Lord Pain wants to say.” She scooped up his head, ignoring his mutterings, and climbed the stairs to the top underground level. 

It was there she found Hidan's body sitting upright on a couch immediately near the entrance, as if dumped immediately upon entering. It probably was, which made Sakura smirk. She saw Kisame cooking something that smelled garlicky and delicious. She stuffed Hidan's head snuggly into the couch so speaking would be nigh on impossible. Sakura approached the kitchen section of the room and sat down at a nearby table facing the tall man. Kisame watched her approach as he sautéed some white fish in a sauce, a growing pile of cooked fillets next to him. 

"You know, I thought having an immortal test subject would be great. And it is, don't get me wrong. Hidan is just really annoying." Kisame guffawed hearing her words. Hidan made noises of protest from across the room.

"You're telling me! Goodluck with him, blossom." She gave him a dramatic eye roll. 

"Thank you, I definitely need it," she paused for a moment and gave another big whiff of his cooking, "it smells delicious by the way."

"Thanks," he beamed at her, showing off all of his sharp teeth, "I’m not done yet so you're early." She nodded her understanding. There was a beat of silence before she pressed on.

"So, what do you do for fun around here?" He looked up to her with an unreadable expression. 

"I spar a lot. I am looking for a shogi partner if you're interested." Sakura perked up.

"You know I've only played a couple times before against a friend. I won once. I'll play shogi with you if you play cribbage with me." Her father's family were traveling merchants and had brought all sorts of games and toys along with them whenever they visited Sakura and her parents. Kisame looked quizzical.

"I've heard of that game but you'll have to teach me, blossom." She grinned at the man.

"Deal! I haven't played board games in so long."

"I beat Itachi at Go twice in a row and now he doesn't play board games with me anymore," he snickered, recalling the interaction. A smooth voice called out from behind her making her turn,

"Don't lie Kisame. You know you counted your dead strings twice to finally win. You did not honor our game." Itachi looked incredibly serious as he stared down Kisame with brown eyes. The chef for the evening shuffled under Itachi's gaze.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You're just a sore loser."

"Hn." Sakura snorted to see an Uchiha participate in banter.

“You know, I never thought I’d see an Uchiha play a boardgame, let alone take one so seriously.” He turned to lay his intense gaze on her now.

“Some games are like a spar between minds instead of bodies.” She blinked at him, taken aback by his unexpected prose. 

Their conversation was cut short by the arrival of the remaining members. Deidara gave her a small wave, and both mouths she could see were smiling. Kisame carried several dishes full of cooked fish to the table, followed by several pans of roasted vegetables. Sakura decided that Hidan could join the group for dinner and crossed the room to reattach his head. She was delighted to see that his body readily accepted her healing chakra and took over. She just needed to start the process and then his pact with Jashin took over. Hidan cursed at Sakura before taking a seat next to Kakuzu who snarled at the cultist. Sakura could see more of Kakuzu’s stitches now that his mask was off. Konan and Pain sat next to each other on the same side as the zombie duo. Sakura found an open seat between Itachi and Deidara across from Konan. No one sat at the heads of the table. Everyone dished from the food lining the center of the table.

The fish was an explosion of flavors in her mouth. She groaned in appreciation of Kisame’s cooking and loaded two more fillets onto her plate. The chef laughed hearing and seeing Sakura’s zeal for his fish. 

“Fuck bitch, I can get used to hearing you moan,” Hidan leaned towards Sakura and grinned. A thick silence immediately fell over the table as all eyes turned towards the volatile, pink-haired woman. She continued eating her meal as if she did not hear Hidan’s words. Kakuzu grinned as Hidan got visibly annoyed at her silent treatment. 

“I said-” 

“Hidan. Don’t be vulgar.” Itachi cut Hidan off and to Sakura’s surprise, Hidan listened to him. She looked up at Itachi and saw his sharingan active. 

That would make anyone stop looking in this direction. She let out an inaudible sigh at his blasé use of his sharingan despite her orders to rest his eyes. Lucky for Itachi she was far more annoyed at Hidan’s entire existence than the prospects of healing his eyes once more in probably a long string of ocular healings. A soft ‘hey’ from her other side made her turn to look at Deidara.

“You are alright, right? un,” they looked just slightly concerned as they made eye contact with her. Sakura gave them a warm smile and nodded.

“Yes, thank you. That jutsu I used can heal anything that doesn’t kill me instantly if I need to activate it. If it is already active, as long as I have chakra I will be fine. I have no side effects right now other than suffering through Hidan’s presence.” Her bright smile to her teammate waned into a grimace with her words while almost everyone around the table chuckled. Even Itachi exhaled slightly harder as a laugh at the cultist’s expense. Hidan was supremely offended by the laughter.

“At least you’re suffering,” he sneered before sulking the rest of the meal. Sakura enjoyed having conversations with her fellow Akatsuki members. It reminded her of one dinner the Konoha 9 had had at the insistence of Choji, Ino, and Kiba once they all made genin and had some money. Sakura and Naruto had easily been persuaded into attending and had dragged Sasuke along. The free-flowing banter, one person going too far (always Naruto, now Hidan), even with a stern Uchiha keeping the peace once the troublemaker went too far were similar enough to make a band of bittersweet nostalgia wrap around Sakura’s heart. 

As if sensing the turn in her mood, Pain finally spoke up.

“Our path is changing now with Sakura Haruno’s defection from Konoha and joining us. I have agreed to stop targeting Shukaku and Kurama provided Naruto can pass a test Sakura is making.”

“A test? un” Pain nodded to Sakura, indicating that she should explain now. She hesitated slightly before doing so.

“Naruto is my friend. If he can watch me defect from Konoha and keep the fox in, he passes. I essentially am making a scenario where we don’t have to fight when I show Konoha I’ve defected. I need most of you there I think, actually.” Sakura knit her eyebrows together. Her task sounded impossible, especially with such an unknown variable like Naruto Uzumaki. Hidan laughed at her, sounding crazy. Sakura despaired at the daunting task.

“Don’t worry, un. Hidan’s craziness is a good deterrent for a lot of people. We’ll help you, un.” Deidara smiled at her. Konan was nodding along. Kisame rumbled up from the end of the table,

“I’m great at standing around looking tough.” Sakura laughed and smiled once again. 

“How long until Konoha becomes suspicious at your lack of correspondence?” Purple ringed eyes bore into her. She thought seriously for a moment. 

“Probably just another month, but potentially six weeks if nobody says anything to remind Lady Tsunade about me,” Sakura hesitated, “I share a summon with her. If she gets curious or desperate enough, she might send our summon to find me.” Purple eyes narrowed slightly.

“Can you prevent being taken?” 

“Most likely by sharing how much healing I’ve been doing. She will respect that more than human politics.” Pain smiled.

"You have an intelligent summon, politics are meaningless in comparison to experienced life and helping others." Sakura was stunned for a moment and just stared at him before murmuring her agreement. 

"I will continue to reevaluate our plan without those Tailed Beasts and we will continue to take missions that come in to Ame. That is all," rising with Konan, the pair sorted out their dishes together and left the room.

"They're always busy with village matters, un. Lord Pain normally gets straight to the point too, he let us talk tonight and make fun of Hidan, un" Deidara snickered.

"That's because we all enjoy doing that." Kakuzu said as he finished drying and putting away his dish before also leaving the room. Kisame looked at her with a hopeful look on his face.

"Shogi?" Sakura sighed before responding, "I would love to but I have a test subject to lock away first. Let me deal with him while you set up." Hidan was trying to slowly sneak out of the room and froze at her words before cursing her again. Kisame readily agreed and set about packing the leftovers away into bento boxes, ready to be grabbed and taken. 

Sakura grabbed Hidan and dragged him down to the lab. Orochimaru had several cells designed to hold prisoners in long term that were thoroughly reinforced and sealed to be opened with a unique chakra signature. Sakura's clone had re-calibrated the seals while it was cleaning so Sakura had no problems quickly throwing Hidan into one of them and locking it up again. He was howling as she left the lab, shutting the lights and closing the door as she went. As she rose to the training level, she could not hear Hidan's cries anymore. She did not stop to consider what the sannin had used those prisoner cells for, or who. 

Instead, she continued up to play shogi with Kisame. Sakura was smiling to herself as she thinks,

Yeah, I only played a couple times, but I won once against Shikamaru. I'm not going to be the pushover he thinks I'll be!

As she enters the the lounge to find Kisame seated at a table, board set up and waiting for her.

Chapter Text

Sakura could see that Kisame had set up the game to give himself a moderate handicap by removing two of his pieces. She hadn’t played with a handicap in a long while, but it would make mopping the floor with the ex-Kiri nin that much easier. She accepted the handicap as she sat down across from him. He opened the game as she did so, and it did not take her long to forcefully take and hold the upper hand in the game. Kisame narrowed his eyes at her with a grin on his face.

“Only played a couple times, huh?” Sakura beamed back.

“Yeah! You’re the one who underestimated my opponent. He’s a genius and I won once.” Hearing her words, Kisame groaned and his head fell into his hands muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “Konoha and their geniuses”. He valiantly fought the rest of the game, but he had underestimated her until it was too late which let her claim victory. 

“Ugh. So. Is it time for me to learn cribbage?” Sakura hummed while she thought. 

I should have enough chakra control to make a board…

“Sure! Find us some playing cards while I figure out how to make a board.” Kisame left the room to retrieve playing cards. Sakura walked over to a stone wall and placed her hands on it. She saturated the area between her hands with earth chakra, making the area infused with chakra half an inch thick. She coaxed the rectangle to separate from the wall, which it did so with a fine layer of dust coating the area. Sakura removed it from the small shelf she had just created and continued to saturate the slab with her chakra to make it malleable. Withdrawing two senbon from her pouch, Sakura set about piercing the slab with two parallel tracks of a spiraling 120 hole path. Coating her fingers with earth chakra, she pinched several pieces of stone from the edges of her newly formed shelf and thinned them into pegs. She gave two of the pegs a looped top and kept two straight so they were two discernable sets of pegs. Kisame re-entered the room with a deck of playing cards to see the board set up on the table.

“Well that’s handy.”

“You can play without a board but I find it more fun with one,” she shrugged. Sakura gave him a quick rundown of the rules to explain why he would be the one dealing first. Giving him the first crib would be giving him as much of an advantage as she could to make up for his disastrous handicap at shogi. Sakura was also kind enough to point out any points Kisame missed counting up instead of stealing them, as she didn’t want to earn the disdain of her new game buddy on their first night of games. As per all natural rules of the universe, Kisame absolutely destroyed her at his first game of cribbage, so Sakura didn’t let it get to her. She had won at shogi, after all. 

“Do you want to keep playing games?” Kisame looked hopefully at her while he asked. 

“No, I should sleep. I’m pretty tired. Not every day… Hidan happens.” 

“I understand blossom, thanks for playing tonight. We’ll play again soon.” She nodded her head and left the first floor, descending one level so she could go to her own room. Once she was inside, she fell straight into bed and fell asleep. 

**

When Sakura awoke the next day she got dressed in her black and red cloak that she was rapidly falling in love with before tying up her hair and ascending a level to get breakfast. When she approached the room she saw Konan sitting at a table near the entryway with some scrolls along the table. Deidara was eating breakfast looking at a chunk of wood. Sakura was curious to see them turn the wood every direction to get a full view of it before plunking it back down onto the stone table. Konan looked up to Sakura when she entered the gate.

“Good morning, Sakura. Lord Pain decided today would be a good day to start teaching medical ninjutsu to our shinobi that are highly skilled with chakra control. They are aware of the assignment and agree that learning such things will be beneficial to the village. I have acquired a variety of teaching medical ninjutsu scrolls and several practice scrolls with seals for your students. I hope they are the correct ones,” the purple-haired woman smiled at Sakura, who blinked at this information. 

“I knew to expect to be in sensei-mode but I somehow didn’t expect it to be today,” she said with a small laugh as she walked over to the table Konan sat at with the scrolls. She opened them and looked over the contents of each. They were a sufficient base to begin with, and there were several scrolls for students to practice attuning their chakra to a patient with a dying fish. 

“Yes, these will do nicely for now. Several more of these depending on how many students I have would be useful, and buckets of live fish at the hospital for my use,” Sakura gestured to the identical scrolls with the seals for the fish. Konan nodded and rose from the table.

“I will retrieve more of those scrolls and fish for you,” she nodded once to Deidara and Sakura before exiting the room. Sakura threw together a breakfast and sat across the table from her teammate while eating. 

“So what’s up with the wood?” They sighed. 

“Well, ever since Sasori died,” they looked at her before continuing without any hesitation, “it finally settled whose art is better! un. Art is an explosion! Bang!” At this they lifted their arms and each mouth on either hand spat out a small explosive that went off with a crack. The blast was only the size of an orange for each explosive and they weren’t deafening in the enclosed space either. Sakura trusted them to not explode her so she watched the small explosions just above the table without flinching. She looked back at them patiently.

“Only, I thought I’d try art his way for once, un. Except I can’t figure it out! All I can think about is making this piece of wood explode twenty different ways! un.” They lightly punched the piece of wood. It was roughly one cubic foot of wood. The wood was a sandy brown in color, with one side of the cube being a slightly darker brown than the rest. Sakura smiled at them after finishing her bite of food.

“I’ve found it best to dive into something headfirst to get a feel for it. Do you know what you want to carve?” They grimaced.

“No. Sasori would always be making puppets or puppet parts, un. All I can think about is how flammable the wood is and how easily it would break apart, un.” They looked dejected at their challenging artist’s block.

“Well, have you ever carved before?” 

“Well, no, but-”

“Why don’t you try sculpting instead? You already work with clay, just don’t explode your sculpture.” Deidara looked at her as if she had grown a second head before, slowly, acceptance crossed their face.

“I honestly can’t believe I didn’t think of that, un. He normally carved things so I thought it would be better that way.” Sakura gestured to the block of wood that was sitting on the table.

“Could I try carving something out of that?” They looked startled at her request before smiling.

“Go ahead, let’s see what you make! un.” It was Sakura’s turn to pick up the sandy wooden block and inspect it. The grain of it went seemingly smoothly from one side to the other. She looked to her teammate with a serious expression.

“I’ve never carved anything before but I think I can do a decent job. You are probably used to art on a whole different level than what I can produce.” 

“As long as you like your art, it’ll be good, un.” They said with a smile. Sakura stood to take care of her dishes and take the wood to her room.

“Thanks for this. I’ll let you know when I finish it!” They nodded to her before continuing their own breakfast. Sakura gathered the scrolls into one arm and grabbed the block of wood with the other and dropped the wood off in her room before going to the hospital.

When she arrived at the hospital, Naomi cheerfully greeted her.

“Lady Sakura! Several shinobi are currently waiting for you upstairs to learn your healing arts. Thank you for blessing us with your knowledge like this,” she bowed her head slightly and smiled reverently towards Sakura’s hands. 

“I keep saying this Naomi, but I am happy to be of service to this village. I live here now and wherever I live will have a thriving medical system.” Naomi looked absolutely relaxed by her words. Sakura continued into the building, calling a “I will be upstairs if there is an emergency!” over her shoulder towards Naomi.

Upstairs she found several conference rooms before the patient rooms began. One of the meeting rooms contained a handful of chakra signatures. Steeling her spine, Sakura entered the room with her scrolls tucked under her arm. She saw four older shinobi that had obviously had a successful career in their physical prime, and two younger shinobi around her age. All conversation that had been happening stopped when she opened the door and they were all looking at her cloak with various levels of disbelief. One of the older men scoffed and rose from his seat.

“There’s no way a pink child is going to be able to teach us anything even if you are Akatsuki!” Sakura narrowed her eyes at the man before smiling at her idea. 

“Oh darn, I forgot I needed a model body too! I expect everyone to still be here when I get back with it for my demonstration .” Sakura let venom seep into her voice as she spoke to the group. The shinobi that did not provoke her were looking uncomfortable at her threatening aura while the man who did challenge her rolled his eyes and sat back down. She dumped her scrolls onto a table and left the room again. She searched through the closets on the floor she was on and after several minutes of searching, luckily found a CPR training model that had barely any hard plastic, meaning it was easy to pierce. It was exactly what she was looking for. Sakura created a clone and made it transform into a spear. Carrying the two objects back into the room, she dumped them on the low-lying table near the front of the room that gave everyone a view of its surface.

“So. You think I can’t teach medical ninjutsu. Meanwhile, yesterday I healed myself from wounds very similar to this ,” Sakura picked up her spear and slowly and methodically impaled the dummy on it, mimicking her wounds from the previous day. She hoisted the CPR model into the air by the spear, making sure her class saw the head of the spear exiting the neck. 

“You unfortunately are missing the damage to most of my intestines with this model. I healed this spear wound by myself, without dying , and I’m standing here telling you about it without even a scar. Now, do you still think I can’t teach you medical ninjutsu?” She saw Itachi had entered the room carrying several large buckets containing her fish during her demonstration and was looking bemused at the situation, sharingan active. The insolent man had opened his mouth to most likely make another snide remark when Itachi spoke up while placing the buckets down near Sakura.

“I witnessed it. It was the pinnacle of medical ninjutsu. I am here to learn from Sakura.” His words made the insolent man close his mouth and settle down. Most of the shinobi in the room nodded towards Itachi before looking back to Sakura expectantly.  She shot a tight smile at Itachi before setting her impaled model on the ground behind her, dismissing her clone. Sitting down behind the front table, she gestured for her students to do the same. 

"You are all used to fighting life. For the most part, there is no time limit. Fight hard enough,  desperately enough, and you will succeed in extinguishing your opponent's life," Sakura's voice was seldom so serious. She withdrew two smaller fish from the buckets at the side of the table. Laying them on the table so everyone saw them struggling to breathe, Sakura lay a hand on both dying fish. 

"That is not the case with medical ninjutsu. I am here to teach you to fight death. If you fight desperately with everything you have with no regard," Sakura let her medical chakra surge rapidly through one of the fish, burning it and rapidly expanding its body into a grotesque caricature of a fish, "You will fail. Moderation is key to healing," Sakura was purposefully taking her time with the first fish demonstration and explanation. She suppressed the tear that threatened to slide down her face for the fish she was so cruelly using.

"You can do everything right," she carefully saturated the expiring whole fish under her other hand with medical chakra, "sometimes you are just too late and you will still fail." No one blinked as they watched the fish die on the table accompanied by her words. They watched as she withdrew another fish from a bucket. It's struggles for life lessened with each passing second. Just before it expired, Sakura lay her glowing green hands on it, reviving it. Once it was seemingly full strength, she plopped it back down into the water.

"You need to be aware, precise, and informed to use medical chakra and not kill your patient. I have scrolls that will help you attune your chakra to a fish. You have to tune your chakra to the same frequency as your patient's. There are different resonances for each kind of tissue. Most people when learning find that difficult to adjust to. Finding the right amount of chakra to use will be a challenge as well. I assume you all have experienced chakra healing before?” People were nodding their heads around the room, “Good. You are summoning chakra that feels like that to adjust to the fish.” She showed them the hand signs that were commonly used to focus their chakra into a medicinal use. 

“Focus your chakra on the chakra system of the fish. Feel what is wrong and what the fish needs and provide that with your chakra. This learning process will take time; medical ninjutsu requires absolute control. I requested a decent amount of fish on purpose.” Sakura rose from the front table and went to her variety of scrolls and picked up the ones with medical seals to aid her students.

“Place the fish in the center circle of these scrolls to help focus your chakra and negate any minute deviations. As you progress as medics you will learn to stop those deviations yourselves.” There was no movement in her students until Itachi moved to grab a scroll, plucked a fish out of a bucket, and moved to a table to work silently. The rest of her students followed suit and began practicing. She quickly saw that Itachi and one of the older kunoichi were experienced using some form of medical chakra on themselves when they were able to pick up the technique within three fish each. The rest of her students were at least able to summon medical chakra without problem. The rest by the end of the day were able to tune their chakra to that of the dying fish. The woman who had been successful was whispering something about the Hokage and apprentice , so Sakura got the attention of her class.

“It sounds like some of you have figured out who I am exactly. You are correct, I am the apprentice of the Godaime Hokage. Please do not spread this information, there are strategic advantages to my whereabouts remaining unknown. If you have a problem about that, take it up with Lord Pain.” Sakura leveled a hard stare towards her students. None of them looked like they were about to disobey her, not even the insolent man she had learned was named Mikio. The fact that she was the apprentice of the world’s most famous and skilled medic was not lost on any of them.  Also having to explain to their God why they committed treason was a daunting task.

“That’s all for today, we’ll meet once more this week tomorrow before I take the weekend to rest and do some research. I’ll see everyone tomorrow.” Her students were murmuring their thanks and goodbyes as they left. Sakura collected the remains of many fish and put them into an empty bucket. Itachi abruptly took the bucket of remains from her.

“I will dispose of this. Thank you for the lesson.” Before she could respond, he had left the room. Sakura raised her eyebrow and snorted, smiling ever so slightly. She wrapped up her presence at the hospital for that day, waving to Naomi as she departed. Sakura went directly back to their base to eat leftovers of Kisame’s delicious fish. She found the lounge empty and ate her meal in peace. Deciding to work on Itachi’s lung sample in her evening, Sakura descended to the lab. As she walked past the training level, she could hear Hidan faintly yelling from below. Her stomach lurched as she remembered she had a prisoner now. Sakura sighed. Entering the lab, Sakura could hear that Hidan’s voice was hoarse from constantly yelling. 

“Shut up! I’m here now!”

“Fuck you! I’m so bored, can’t you let me go? This is torture! You said you already got the shit you needed from my head! Lord Jashin demands sacrifice!” Hidan was calling from his cell. Sakura closed and securely latched the door leaving the lab before opening Hidan’s cell. 

“You think sitting in here for a single day is torture? Your sacrifice to Jashin can be your autonomy for a while.” She grabbed Hidan as he tried to bolt around her and out of the lab. He tried to fight his way out of her grip, but she was unmovable with her chakra-reinforced strength holding him in a vice. 

“Sacrifices don’t work like that you filthy heathen!” Hidan spat at her. Sakura raised an eyebrow at that. 

“Well you’re going to have to try to make it work for a while. You don’t even need to describe anything today, I just need to practice,” with that, Sakura placed a hand on Hidan’s spine and scrambled his nervous system. She had heard Tsunade talking about how she had done something similar to Kabuto in a fight and Sakura had wanted to try it for a while now. The pink-haired woman had avoided using harmful medical ninjutsu while reporting to Konoha, she had always included descriptions of her attacks in her reports and hadn’t wanted to have that particular conversation with Tsunade if her mentor had asked. 

She let go of Hidan and he fell to the floor, unable to remain upright. Sakura was unsure on if Jashin would help Hidan through her jutsu. She settled into a chair to watch his progress. To her delight, Hidan couldn’t even talk to tell her just how annoyed he was. He could only grunt in frustration. 

It took him well over an hour to regain control of his body. When he had regained control enough to curse her, Sakura zapped his system again but differently this time. He collapsed once more. Sakura took out Itachi’s blood sample and prepared slides to study under the microscope she had. She noticed that his blood had more white blood cells than usual by a lot, but she hadn’t sensed an infection in his system any of the times she had healed him now. That was interesting. She was going to continue her visual analysis when Hidan made a noise behind her. He was slowly rising from the ground now. Walking over to him, Sakura grabbed his hair and dragged him to a different cell than the one he had been staying in. There, she separated his body into two halves and moved his upper half back into his original cell.

“Since you weren’t satisfied with last night,” she sneered as she closed the door behind her.

“Pinkie! Let me out!”

“Hidan if you don’t shut up I will gag you until I come downstairs next. I am busy and you are not my main concern!” She waited for a beat. He remained silent, much to Sakura’s surprise. Walking back to her microscope, she continued to look through Itachi’s blood. She saw no signs of an infection in his blood specifically. Taking out the small sample of lung tissue, she saturated it with her medical chakra. She didn’t sense an infection of that tissue either, but she knew she might not be detecting the right thing. Something had caused his body to attack his lungs repeatedly. She was going to figure out what.

**

Sakura began carving the wood Deidara had given her over her weekend. The next week saw her start her routine in Amegakure for the next month. She would start her days at the hospital. Her students were progressing nicely with their medical ninjutsu. All of them were able to revive the dying fish by the end of the second week of lessons, and Itachi and the older shinobi woman named Yori were past abrasions and were working with puncture wounds and deep lacerations by then, also practiced on fish. By the third week, several other students had healed small abrasions and were working on punctures and deep lacerations as well, while Itachi and Yori were learning bones now. Most of the teaching scrolls were used now for their detailed anatomical drawings for the students. She had personally healed several broken bones, pneumonia patients, and several cuts over the weeks as well.

She never saw Kakuzu after their dinner where Pain had announced their new intentions with the Tailed Beasts, and when she had asked Deidara about him, they told her that “he never wastes time sitting around. While Hidan is your captive he’s collecting bounties, un.” She accepted that explanation, Kakuzu had seemed to be very financially-motivated. 

With the stitched-man’s teammate Sakura increased her arsenal of harmful medical ninjutsu considerably. Her favorite attacks she had practiced on Hidan over the weeks was the nerve scramble from Tsunade, and she was beginning to refine her blank-seizure genjutsu. The first couple times she had cast the jutsu over Hidan had actually given him a seizure. A week later, she had it refined enough where it was solidly genjutsu in the correct areas of his brain with no danger of causing neurological problems. She had also practiced her chakra scalpel against Hidan in several spars and in the lab. She was adept with it now against moving targets. She was also adept at ignoring Hidan except when it was important.

Sakura had also continued her research with Itachi’s lung sample. She confirmed that whatever his body was attacking was present in only his airways, mostly in his alveoli. Even in his body directly, she could not sense an infection. She watched and sensed his immune system rear up against something about those specific cells. Continued testing showed his body reacted well in the presence of corticosteroids, so Sakura began distilling a steroid Itachi could inhale. She asked Deidara to craft her an actuator for the medicine so it would remain pressurized except for when it was dispensing medicine. Looking at the small canister it would have to accommodate, they had nodded that they could have several made within two days. They were good to their word, and several actuators Itachi could inhale from were added to her desk in the lab.

In most evenings after she was done working for the day and before she fell into sleep, she carved her cosmos flowers. She carved a couple that were still buds, one that was still in the process of blooming, and three fully bloomed flowers in a field of grass. The flowers were not perfect, no matter how much she fretted over them. At a certain point she had to accept the flowers as they were, otherwise they would become far too small for the base she had. The field was wonky and some blades of grass were monumentally larger than others, but Sakura enjoyed the scene she had created. The flowers were swaying in a non-existent breeze. The darker side of the wood she had made into the ground and the lighter wood was the flowers. 

Kisame let her focus on her juggling act with her work for the most part, but on Tuesdays and Fridays cornered her into playing games with him again, for at least a couple hours each night. He got rid of the handicap he had given himself at shogi, and now those games were fierce battles for dominance of the board and pieces which lasted for a while. They tended to trade wins in cribbage now that Kisame was up to speed on playing and strategies. He enjoyed the game immensely, as luck was equally important as skill in it. Sakura enjoyed her game time with the shark man and looked forward to the next time they would play games. They would cycle through several simple card games to reset between the shogi battles and cribbage rounds.

At least once a week, but usually twice, Sakura would also ask one of the available members to spar with her. Hidan was not available outside of their spars for her chakra scalpel practice for her own sanity. She had yet to spar with Konan, but she knew it was only a matter of time on that front. Her spars with Deidara tended to end in stalemate unless one of them wanted to use their more lethal attacks or poisons against the other, but they were a satisfying fight until one of them decided it was over. Her spars with Kisame had become taijutsu training, without Samehada or her medical ninjutsu to even the playing field. She healed whatever broken bones or skin they had after those spars, which they often had. He even showed her several different water ninjutsu to expand her arsenal. They were high level, and Sakura enjoyed learning them immensely. Kisame was a surprisingly good teacher. Itachi had even sparred with her several times, helping her with her genjutsu and overall fighting. Sakura found her routine within Amegakure satisfying, and her skills were honed into that of an S-class ninja. The other members of the Akatsuki weren't exactly eager to help her, but they were always willing with whatever she needed when she asked. Except Hidan. 

By the end of three weeks of routine, all of her students had successfully healed scrapes and some lacerations. Itachi and Yori were learning to heal different kinds of breaks in bones that Sakura provided with her own bones while the rest of the class were still working with fish. She numbed her arm while purposefully breaking her bones so it wasn’t slow, repeated torture for her. Sakura was able to follow along their healing since it was her body they were working on. Several times she corrected their technique, insisting they wanted to reinforce the bones, not just reconnect the pieces, to make the new bone as strong as possible. They were skilled shinobi, which Sakura already knew about Itachi but watching the speed at which he learned solidified that assessment. Whenever Sakura was called away to heal patients that needed her care, they were able to assist the rest of the class. She assumed it was mainly Yori helping them, as Itachi didn’t seem like the type to go out of his way. Sakura was proud of all of her students. 

After weeks of focused work, she was finished sanding her cosmos flower carving. She was oddly nervous to show it to Deidara. Her flowers were not perfectly symmetrical, nor were they as smooth as she wanted. She was proud of it though, as it showed a flower’s journey. It reminded her of Ino, a flower that had bloomed so early to share it’s beauty with the world. She left her room with her little statue and crossed the landing to Deidara and Hidan’s side of the living spaces. Deidara’s door had little bomb stickers covering it which put a smile on her face as she knocked on it. She held the statue behind her back. They opened their door and greeted her with a small smile.

“What’s up? un.” Sakura took a shaky breath and pulled her statue from behind her back, watching them the entire time.

“I finished my flowers and wanted to give it to you. It’s not perfect by any means, and maybe I should have painted it? I didn’t have any oil to make it shine either, but-”

“I love it, thank you, un.” They took the statue of flowers from her and looked at it from every angle, a warm smile growing wider by the second.

“I can keep it, yeah?” She nodded while grinning brightly at them.

“Of course! I’m so happy you like it!” she turned to walk off, waving back to the bomber as she left. 

**

Deidara shut the door after their teammate left and closed their eyes for a long moment before looking down at the small statue of flowers once more. A soft smile returned to their lips again, and they remembered the exact feeling and instant of when Sakura had given it to them. Their smile grew wistful as they realized they understood Sasori and his art more through his killer. Seeing her statue gave them a small bang! in their heart every time they saw it. Setting it down on their workbench where it would be out of harm’s way, Deidara started their own sculpture and glanced back to the kunoichi’s every so often, smiling every time.

**

After three weeks of working closely with Hidan, Sakura decided to be done with the 'immortal' man. She had easily figured out how to kill him, and if he ever made her use her Creation Rebirth technique again, he would be thoroughly dismembered and kept scattered. She descended to the lab to warn the cultist as such. Upon release, he was eager to get upstairs. Sakura wouldn’t let him go until he acknowledged her terms beyond ‘yeah, yeah’. 

“Hidan! Seriously, I don’t want to have to use that jutsu again. Next time I won’t be so nice!” His purple eyes snapped to hers.

“Yes Sakura! I fucking understand! Now let me go so I can fucking kill someone! I've been apologizing to Lord Jashin for our interrupted ritual for weeks, not to mention the lack of fucking suffering !” She was shocked to hear him call her by her proper name, let alone rant, so she just nodded and gestured towards the door, stepping aside. That was all he needed before he was speeding upstairs to tell Pain about his departure to nearby bounty stations looking for Kakuzu. He would likely go on a maniacal rampage that she didn't worry herself with. Her new free time without having to torture Hidan meant she could focus on planning her public defection from Konoha. 

She was sure that they wouldn’t let her go easily. The second Naruto caught wind of her disappearance he would join any missions related to her. Sakura could count on Naruto showing up when she needed him. Heavy, conflicting emotions settled over her chest thinking about her loyal friend.

I joined so I could protect him, I joined so I could protect him, I joined so I could protect him… Taking a deep breath, she continued to think about possible scenarios and proper responses to each when a knock at the door startled her out of her thoughts. She called for whoever was on the other side to enter. She didn’t sense any chakra, so she had a hunch on who it was. She was proven correct when Itachi strode into the room, brown eyes locking onto her green ones despite him most likely not being able to see them clearly. Closing the door behind himself, he came close so he could actually see her while he spoke.

“You asked once if I would like to receive an Eternal Mangekyou if I could without harming Sasuke. To be quite honest, there was a small part of me that believed the Third when he said I would be able to go back to the village at some point. I have a pair of eyes with a mangekyou given freely, sealed away in the Uchiha shrine waiting for my return.” Sakura digested this information for a moment before asking him a question.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

“Hidan is finally out of here, and there was no other time to securely share this information with you once I decided to since I am resting my eyes at your insistence and thus am without the Tsukuyomi.” Sakura huffed out a breath.

“It’s not just my insistence you know! Your mangekyou tears apart your eyes every time!” She snapped at him. She took ten slow breaths before continuing with him.

“Why are you really telling me this information?” Now it was Itachi’s turn to show uncharacteristic hesitation.

“It seems my wish of letting my illnesses ravage my body is going to be trumped by Lord Pain through you. The eyes are from someone precious to me, it would be a shame to waste their gift now that I am being healed. It seems like you might lure several key players away from Konoha, making infiltration more likely to succeed. I wanted you to be aware of the possibility before you commit to a plan of action.” Sakura cursed. His logic was sound. So far though, most of her plan relied on the Akatsuki’s combined power in their presence to threaten Konoha’s forces to standing down. She was unsure on who would receive her audience request, since it was not going to be in Konoha itself.

“Can you leave a crow or two with me to make it look like you are really there? I don’t mind using clones to cover for your absence but without something of yours like the sharingan or crows,” Sakura trailed off. He nodded.

“Leaving crows with you would also keep us informed on if a fight develops or warning for the beast extraction.”

“Ugh, this better work. You and Kisame are a major part of our fighting force.” He faintly smiled.

“I am sure it will work out. Otherwise, you’ll just punch until people agree with you. Thank you for listening to that information.” Startled that the legendary Itachi Uchiha was making a joke to her, she could just nod. He turned to leave the lab.

“Wait.” Her voice rang clear through the room. He stopped with his hand on the door to open it and turned back slightly to her.

"Whose eyes are they?" He did not answer her.

“What will you do with your eyes if we get the eyes you have at the shrine?” 

“Preserve them so if Sasuke ever comes looking for them, he may have them." There was no hesitation in his answer. Sakura smiled with a heavy heart to Itachi.

“Of course. Thank you for sharing the info about the eyes with me. I will incorporate it into my plans.” He nodded and continued to leave the lab. 

Sakura was weighed down by the feeling of despair in her chest. Her village had thrown away the loyalty of a man who was too good for their village to begin with. Whenever she doubted her current path with the Akatsuki, she reminded herself that her precious village had orchestrated the Uchiha massacre, knowing Itachi wouldn’t let their true role be revealed which would be devastating for the village, and instead take the blame himself. That fact bolstered her self-esteem and confidence in her moments of doubt over her choice between the Akatsuki and Konoha.

Chapter Text

“Don’t come back to my office with such stupid whining crap again! You are wasting my time!” There was the sound of a sake glass shattering and the chunin who had insisted on speaking with the Hokage scuttled out of her office. Shizune sighed before re-entering Lady Tsunade’s office. That was not a good way to start a Monday.

“I’m sorry Lady Tsunade. Several people tried to warn him, including me. But he insisted it was a problem you help with.” The blonde laughed at that.

“Clerical error on his last mission that doesn’t change anything. I don’t need to waste my time with that!” Shizune looked at Lady Tsunade. She was grumpy over the past several months with both Team 7 and Sakura being gone on extended missions. Shizune wasn’t offended that her presence wasn’t enough, she knew that no one could replace all of her precious people together home safely. 

“It won’t be long now until they’re all back, Lady Tsunade.” Her response was a growl and she poured herself a new cup of sake. Shizune sighed and collected the scrolls for the upcoming week of hospital shifts and bowed before exiting the room. The Hokage’s assistant could not wait for Lady Tsunade’s people to return to the village.

**

On Saturday Team 7 arrived back to Konoha. They all had small injuries from skirmishes around Sound, but it was clear that they had showered before reporting to the Hokage. They had confirmed that Sasuke had continued to use Orochimaru’s hideouts in Sound country after he had killed the snake sannin. The team had consistently tracked Sasuke’s scent to the border of the country before losing it inside, similar to how Orochimaru had been unable to be tracked when operating from his bases. 

“Granny Tsunade! We should just go and get him, head-on! We can bring Sakura so even if dumb Sasuke hurts us, we’ll be okay!” The blonde woman’s eyebrows twitched at Naruto’s sheer volume and lack of critical thinking. His captain, Kakashi, still hadn’t shown up for their debriefing. Sai and Yamato had given up trying to control the blond jinchuuriki. 

“You idiot! We can’t just go raid a different Hidden Village on a whim! And besides, Sakura is on a deeply undercover mission right now.”

“Aw man! Is that why you’ve had such an attitude, Granny Tsunade?” Her face darkened and she slammed her hand down on the table, gnashing her teeth.

“No, you just wear down my patience with your stupid suggestions! Now, if you have nothing more to report you are dismissed!” Naruto started grumbling about Granny Tsunade being unfair, but now was a great opportunity to get ramen. He dragged his teammates along to Ichiraku. As the team left her office, Kakashi materialized in a chair across from her. 

“Yo.”

“You know, you can at least show up with the rest of your team for mission reports!” She was very annoyed with the masked man.

“Meh, I’m sure they told you everything important. What I have to say isn’t a part of the mission.” She was intrigued despite herself and gestured for him to continue his explanation.

“On our way back I sensed a very high level ninja near the edges of my capabilities trying very hard not to be sensed. So I made a clone to explore and see what was up. It couldn’t find much but in the distance saw a single man walking towards Otogakure with someone slung over his shoulder from the direction of Hot Water or Lightning. He was wearing a black cloak with red clouds.” Kakashi looked at Tsunade with his one eye and she knew the weighted look he was really giving her.

“Just one Akatsuki member?”

“That I could detect, yes.”

“That’s very odd…” She downed her cup of sake.

“I agree. I want to figure out why he was alone, and maybe if the Akatsuki have involvement with Otogakure and Sasuke.” Her amber eyes narrowed at the masked man in front of her.

“Nice try but you and your team have gone on an extended mission and just got home. You’ll stick around the village for the next week whether you like it or not.” He sighed and left the room just as abruptly as he had arrived. Tsunade poured herself another glass of alcohol. 

**

Team 7 arriving back to Konoha without major injury was surely an omen for the rest of her operatives. If the team with the most notoriously bad luck hadn’t encountered any problems, any other returning teams made up for the lack of excitement. 

Every single day the following week had seen Tsunade being summoned to the hospital to save returning shinobi from death, regular jonin and ANBU alike. Most of the teams that had required emergency work had returned from the west, which the sannin noticed and filed away for further analysis. They had managed to do enough first aid on themselves to return to Konoha from beyond Fire's borders, but only barely. By Monday, she had sent a small piece of Katsuyu to get Jiraiya to continue her paperwork and field any shinobi or diplomats in the Hokage Tower for her. Since there were no immediate complaints about his behavior, she could only assume he was serious when he helped keep the village running. 

By Thursday, she was beginning to become exhausted at the highly chakra intensive surgeries she was doing daily. She had even created a shadow clone to continue healing when another critically injured team arrived. Tsunade had yet to lose a patient that week though, so all of her exhaustion was worth it. Shizune helped with several of the surgeries, but for the most part kept the rest of the hospital functional and running as she usually did.

Finishing her emergency shift at the hospital, Tsunade dragged herself back to her home to collapse and rest again. The Hokage had decided to not use her reserves to heal her shinobi that week, not wanting to deplete her stores if she could manage without them. Shizune had given her a knowingly sympathetic look as she left the medical building that flashed through her mind as she fell asleep. 

**

Tsunade strode into her office at the end of the day Friday ready to take back control of her Hokage duties. 

"Oh Tsunade, finally. I don't know how you manage to do this every day! The paperwork, the whining, the lack of beautiful women!" Jiraiya cried when he caught sight of her. Her bad mood reared its ugly head. 

"You old toad!! I didn't have much of a choice when the first choice for the job said no! Now, tell me about the reports you've received this week." She glared at him while she sat back down in the Hokage's chair. The Toad Sage scratched the back of his head while he returned to the visiting side of the desk.

"Not much happened that you don't already know about. The returning teams ran into problems around Grass or so. Say it was a man with silver hair,” he shrugged, “That could describe a lot of men. Old ladies around the village continue to pay us to find their cats." He picked at his teeth. "You've had all of the excitement." 

"Where is Sakura's report?" Jiraiya looked at her blankly.

"Have you been expecting a report from her?" She gave him a startled look. 

"Yes, her report was due on Monday." Now his face darkened and they shared a worried look with each other.

"What are you thinking, Tsunade?" She sighed.

"She's alright. Of course she is, I taught her. Something is fishy about it though, she is very punctual. Kakashi was eager for a mission and his dogs already know her scent. I think a certain reconnaissance mission is perfect for him." Jiraiya nodded and went to leave the office.

"I'll go find him. His teammates?"

"I'll let him pick, he is going to be stressed and whoever he feels like he can trust will work." Jiraiya nodded and disappeared from her office. Tsunade sat down in her chair with a sigh, and broke into her sake.

**

The Toad Sage found the masked man at the memorial cenotaph. He had no reaction to Jiraiya's sudden appearance. 

"Kakashi," he moved now to look back to the sannin.

"You have a mission."

"Tsunade said I need to spend the week in the village whether I like it or not. That's still another day."

"Well, the situation has changed." Jiraiya spoke with a tension that was not normally present in his voice. Kakashi looked closely at the man.

"What is it?" Jiraiya shook his head.

"Tell me who you trust enough to take on this classified reconnaissance and tracking mission if you had a choice in teammates." Kakashi was thoroughly confused at this point. Something was wrong.

"Genma and Gai." He said after a pause. The sannin nodded.

"They will meet you at Tsunade's office in half an hour. Pack a bag, Kakashi," with that, the Toad Sage left the memorial. Kakashi stared at where the man had been standing for a moment before shunshining home to gather his pack before heading straight to Hokage Tower. Something was wrong.

**

When Kakashi entered Tsunade's office with his pack ready, Genma and Gai were already there waiting outside, taken aback at their abrupt summoning by Jiraiya of all people. When the masked ninja arrived, they followed him into Tsunade's office. 

"Finally! Where the hell have you been?" She immediately knocked back a cup of sake upon the team's arrival. She continued speaking before any of them could say a word.

"Something is happening in the west and one of our operatives who has been on a solo undercover mission in Earth has not reported back according to her own schedule. I expect she is alright but we need to make sure. This team is going to hunt through Earth for a trace of this operative. It is crucial you remain undetected in that country. Her work is very sensitive." She took a deep breath.

"Of course, Lady Tsunade. Who are we trying to find?" Genma was the one to engage their leader after a pause. She shakily exhaled her deep breath.

"Sakura Haruno." Kakashi's aura immediately became threatening and his body grew tense. Amber eyes fixed on him while his teammates shared a knowing look behind him.

"Kakashi, you had the ability to choose your teammates because I need you to hold yourself together. Get Team 7 squared away then leave immediately. Sakura was working in a compound deep in Earth near Iron and the unclaimed lands surrounding it," she threw him a scrolls with the mission details, "That has the exact location. According to her last report, her target should be dead by now and she should be moving back to Fire. She is normally very punctual with her reports, and with the recent roaming violence in the west, I am concerned. Keep the fact that she is missing to yourselves, that weakens us considerably and we don't want it leaking to the other villages." The team of jonin nodded.

"Meet at the gates in ten minutes." Kakashi muttered before shunshining away. Genma and Gai looked at each other and Tsunade sighed.

"Help him. He's our best tracker and his ninken know her already. Otherwise I wouldn't send him." Now it was Genma's turn to sigh.

"No worries, we know how to deal with him, Lady Hokage."

"The passion of youth is hard to contain, but we will do our best to restrain Kakashi so he doesn't go overboard!" Gai gave Tsunade a bright thumbs-up before smacking Genma's shoulders to indicate he was ready to leave. The pair left the Hokage's office.

**

Kakashi appeared near Ichiraku Ramen. He wasn't entirely sure his team would be there since he avoided all team dinners if he could, but the loud Uzumaki was able to be heard immediately. His aura gave Sai and Yamato pause, but Naruto was oblivious to the change in atmosphere. Kakashi strode up behind his team, finally cluing Naruto into his presence. 

"I'm leaving on a mission, we won't be going back out after this week like usual." Sai had been looking at him while he spoke and when he finished, Sai blinked and turned back to his noodles. 

"Everything alright, senpai?"

"Wha- wait! You're going on a mission without us! Kakashi-sensei that's not fair!" It was then that Naruto turned to look at his team captain. Something had made the man uncharacteristically tense to the point where Naruto had noticed. 

"What's the matter, Kaka-sensei? Where are you going?" 

"I can't tell you. Just, don't cause any problems while I'm gone." He disappeared from Ichiraku. Naruto was sputtering on his noodles. 

"What's going on?! I'm gonna go talk to Granny Tsunade!" Naruto chugged the remainders of his ramen and ran off towards Hokage Tower. 

**

Naruto burst into Tsunade's office to find Jiraiya and Tsunade hunched over a map together, Jiraiya cut off in mid-sentence by his entrance.

"What are you doing, you twerp! Show some respect for your Hokage!" Naruto had an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face. 

"Something is wrong with Kakashi-sensei. What mission are you sending him on?" Tsunade cursed. 

"Making you worried is the exact opposite of what I meant when I told him to get his team squared away!"

"Whatever is going on is serious! Tell me!" Jiraiya's deep voice cut through the room:

"Sakura is missing." Naruto sputtered for a moment then fell silent. Tsunade rounded on him with anger in her face.

"What about keeping that quiet did you not understand?!"

"The boy was going to find out eventually. There aren't many missions that can make Kakashi Hatake react like that."

"Sakura? Is missing?" Naruto was looking at Tsunade blankly. She sighed.

"We don't know for sure. Just, her report is late. Sending a team to make sure one of our operatives hasn't run into trouble is standard operating procedure."

"Yeah, when it's a random chunin! This is Sakura! Where are they going? I can catch up and we'll look together!" Now it was Jiraiya who answered.

"You're not cut out for such high rank stealth missions, kid." Tsunade followed that up with, "the only reason Hatake is on this mission is because his ninken already know Sakura well." 

"But Granny, I can help!"

"No, Naruto. And if you keep bothering me about it I'll give you nothing but D-rank missions for the rest of the year!"

"But Sakura-"

"NO Naruto!" The blond let out of noise of sheer frustration before leaving the room, slamming the doors behind him. The sannin went back to examining the map. Without knowing exactly who had wrought havoc to their returning teams and where the mystery man was made Tsunade assume the worst about the situation, even if she knew her apprentice was very capable. Jiraiya patted her back once again.

Chapter Text

Sakura had continued with her work in Ame in the next week. Her medical ninjutsu class was progressing nicely. She stayed around the hospital most days to heal any critically wounded or chronically ill patients while answering any questions her students had about anatomy. They needed to fully understand cellular and human physiology to thrive as medic shinobi and Sakura enjoyed answering their questions whenever they had any. Yori and Itachi's progress had also been slowed by them building their knowledge about the various tissues and organ systems of the body and how chakra affected them all. Sakura herself had enjoyed her medical studies as they had been very focused and specialized work, and she was never one to shy away from a challenge. She could tell some of her students were like that too, but not all. Those few that weren’t struggled to keep up but eventually got the jutsus down. For the most part though, Sakura worried about her plan. 

Pain had agreed that getting Itachi new eyes was a worthy risk to not having Kisame and the Uchiha present. If it comes down to extracting the Nine-Tails, Pain had said, looking intensely at her, their rings will allow them to be present. The rest of our forces will be enough to defend ourselves if need be. He had looked extremely confident when he uttered those words too, making Sakura wonder what he saw in this endeavor that she did not. After that talk she had sought out Konan and asked her about the extent of her paper ninjutsu. Sakura was curious if her ninjutsu would allow her to hide herself effectively, allowing their forces at least one surprise shinobi on the off chance violence did break out. Konan assured her that she would be able to be hidden as a small paper angel sitting on someone hidden from view but ready to fight and protect if necessary. Sakura was relieved to hear this; the less it looked like the Akatsuki were planning something, the more likely her defection would be peaceful. 

Hidan and Kakuzu had not returned to Amegakure since she had released Hidan from her studies, but no one else seemed overly concerned, even with Sakura’s looming defection and Konoha realizing one of their shinobi was missing. No one else was worried about it, so Sakura tried to not worry also, trusting that Pain would have them back for her plan. She continued at the hospital as much as she could while maintaining a strict training regiment.

**

An explosion rocked the ground in the training facility outside of Amegakure. The earth of the arena scattered everywhere in the blast. Sakura was flung into a wall from the force of the explosion, cracking it where she hit. She had made a layer of chakra armor, rapidly healing and reinforcing the surface of her whole body’s skin for the impact, and maintained that armor as rocks tumbled into her. Deidara descended to the ground before the blast had cleared. 

"Bang! I got you! I don't normally get you, un. What's distracting you, Sakura?" They called over to the rising kunoichi. She let out a keen note of frustration. 

"I'm just so worried about my defection from Konoha! I wasn't that worried about it and then Itachi and Kisame aren't going to be there and them going to Konoha while I'm defecting just makes it seem like I'm actually scheming to betray the village and that is the furthest thing from the truth!" Her partner gave her a sympathetic look as they dismissed their clay bird and came close to her. 

"Well, you have betrayed your village. Even if it was for a noble cause, which it was, un. You gave your entire life to protect the Nine-Tails. Except you didn't die. I would be honored to have a friend care about me so much." They stared at her intensely while saying this. Sakura was mortified to feel tears well in her eyes. 

“I just…” Sakura’s throat threatened to close, cutting off her speech and making her swallow several times before continuing. Deidara patiently waited for her.

“I just don’t want me failing on my original mission to result in anyone’s death. On Konoha’s side or ours. And I can’t shake my bad feeling about Itachi’s mission to Konoha. I’m worried about Naruto and if he’ll even understand what I did. And one of my favorite concerns of mine is the fact that I’m worried that the people I gave my life for will hate me because of what I did and try to kill me! And I shouldn’t even be concerned about their opinions in the first place because it’s been so long since I’ve actually connected to anyone in the village. I feel ridiculous worrying so much but I can’t stop it!” Her voice cracked by the end of her rant and she struggled to contain her tears. They gave her a frustratingly understanding look.

“Is there anything I can do to help you?” She gave the bomber a small smile for offering their assistance. 

“Actually I have been meaning to ask how many people you can fit on your bird.”

“Aw that’s it? That’s easy! I can transport the whole Akatsuki if I have to, un.” Sakura let out a breath of relief at that.

“But that’s not all I’m going to do for you, let’s go back to base so I can show you something!” Deidara eagerly started to walk back towards Pain Tower without confirming Sakura was coming. She stared at her blond partner in shock for a second before following them. They were eagerly talking about art and how weird it has been to experiment with sculpting instead of exploding and their new art isn’t done but they thought Sakura would enjoy helping for the final decisions of the piece. She was very curious to see what they were talking about and what they had been sculpting for a little over a week now. 

Once they got to their base Deidara quickly descended to the living floor and led her inside their room. Sakura could see that they had put their bed in their small alcove room through the archway off to the side and the whole main room was a workshop for art. Deidara led her to a specific corner of their workspace that she could see brilliant pink in. Sakura followed and saw that they were sculpting a field of cosmos flowers as well but on a grander scale than her own carving. There was a small girl in the field of flowers, but she didn’t have any discerning features about her as she was unfinished and unpainted. Sakura’s heart clenched seeing her in the pink flowers, and Deidara turned to look at her. 

“I didn’t know if you would want a specific person or coloring or something for her, un.” Sakura felt her eyes well with tears again, but for a much happier reason than earlier that day. 

“Oh my goodness, Deidara. First of all, what you have now is absolutely beautiful. Thank you. It would mean the world to me if you could make her look like my late friend Ino. You actually kind of look like her, except she was overall paler and her bangs were flipped,” Deidara looked a bit startled to hear they resembled her late friend, but she continued on, “As a little girl she wore her hair in a center part though. And pupil-less blue eyes. If you’ve seen or fought a Yamanaka, their clan all have somewhat similar appearances.” At the mention of the Yamanaka clan they nodded.

“Yeah, I’ve fought one of them once. Mind jutsu, right?” Sakura nodded at their words and they smiled.

“Perfect. I’ll finish this in a day or two. Thanks for your help, un” Sakura smiled at them.

“Thanks for cheering me up. And for making that statue. It is already beautiful, I can’t wait to see the finished piece.” Deidara smiled at her and sat down at their workstation. She left their room with a small smile on her face. 

Sakura was not hungry and she didn't want to focus on her medical work so she descended to the training level to see if anyone was there. Itachi and Kisame were locked in a sword fight but she could tell both of them were aware of her presence. She was not comfortable with swords in an actual combat setting where she much preferred outright taijutsu, but Sakura used them enough to tell that while Itachi was highly skilled with his katana, Kisame's skill was on another level. The ex-Kiri nin was not using Samehada currently to even the spar out, but he had a longer reach and more power backing his blows. Kisame gained the upper hand shortly after Sakura entered and when he had clearly won the spar they both turned to her. Sakura scratched the back of her head and tried to look apologetic.

"Ah, I didn't mean to interrupt your training with my favor. I wanted to practice my genjutsu and I just left Deidara with their art…" she trailed off, not sure if she wanted to tell them they were making her art that memorialized her late friend. Luckily they both nodded and Kisame looked slightly wary as he asked her,

"Is this the jutsu you needed Hidan for?"

"Yes it is. I have it firmly as genjutsu with no worry for a stroke now, and if I mess it up I will be here to save you." She was only slightly teasing. Hidan had had nasty strokes while she perfected her blank-seizure genjutsu's application. 

"I will watch your jutsu on Kisame then experience it if you don't mind." Itachi told her in no uncertain terms with his sharingan active. She nodded her agreement quickly; having one of the most skilled sharingan users in recent Uchiha history analyze her own jutsu was a valuable opportunity. Kisame glared at Itachi and then readied himself to attack the kunoichi. Sakura stared him down and thought about how she had anchored the genjutsu in Hidan's mind and what brain patterns she was mimicking. As Kisame launched himself towards her, she flew through her hand signs.

As she finished casting her genjutsu Kisame's step faltered and he stopped moving. True blank-seizures only last a couple seconds, so Sakura had had much difficulty making it last longer without casting a different, supplemental genjutsu on her target. The reason she had been drawn to mimicking a blank-seizure was the time distortion the person experiencing the seizure felt, or how no time seemingly passed. Kisame managed to break her genjutsu after a minute under it. 

"Why do you want to cast this specific genjutsu instead of an easier one to make your opponent stop?" Itachi asked her, eyes cutting through her as they focused on her after Kisame moved again to lift his sword back up. 

"This genjutsu makes the person experiencing it feel as if no time has passed and they shouldn't be able to notice they are in a genjutsu even if they are masters in it. How was it Kisame?" Itachi looked at her with skepticism in his gaze before turning his gaze to his partner.

“Well, you’re right blossom, I don’t know how long I was under the genjutsu but if I had to guess, twenty seconds? The jutsu’d weaken every so often in a rhythm which is how I broke it.” Sakura smiled and told him that he’d been under her jutsu for over a minute, delighting in his slightly shocked expression. Itachi nodded at this information.

"Alright, use your genjutsu against me." Itachi did not begin to attack her like Kisame, instead opting to fully experience her genjutsu. Sakura molded her chakra through her hand signs and focused on the anatomy of the brain and her desired result. She could see the moment Itachi's gaze lost their focus as the genjutsu worked. He broke out of her jutsu much faster than Kisame did. 

"Hn. What you said would be true if the jutsu did not lessen to loop every handful of seconds. When it repeats is the weakness…" Itachi trailed off while thinking. Kisame looked at her and shrugged.

"Itachi does most of the genjutsu stuff. I get used a lot for practice and have gotten better at breaking genjutsu now,” Kisame shrugged again and sheathed his sword before moving to sit on the stairs.

“If you combine this jutsu with a time-altering one it would be almost unbreakable.” Itachi’s red gaze flicked back to Sakura’s own and she shifted her gaze to the rest of his face.

“How would that fix it?”

“If you cast a genjutsu to make the victim’s perception stall on the next moment, which would be this jutsu, they would not experience the loop. Incorporating the structure of time genjutsu into the construction and anchoring of this one would also achieve the desired result. Or, depending on your skill with genjutsu it might be easier to anchor this jutsu specifically in the target section of the brain instead of blanketed over the victim to lessen the impacts of the genjutsu looping.” Sakura stared at Itachi. The fact he could figure all of that out having been under the genjutsu for under ten seconds was tremendously impressive to her. She nodded slowly at him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever used a genjutsu that alters one’s perception of time but I am a quick learner and I like to think pretty proficient with genjutsu if you wouldn’t mind teaching me.” Itachi nodded and Kisame stood up. The Uchiha slowly showed her the hand signs for the time-altering genjutsu before flashing through them and catching Kisame under the jutsu. The shark ninja didn’t have any obvious reactions to the jutsu. Itachi walked up behind him, taking a kunai out of his pouch while he moved. There was still no reaction from Kisame. Sakura watched, a bit startled as Itachi put the kunai against his partner’s throat in his demonstration.

“How long will he be like that?” she asked, a bit perturbed to see her giant friend unmoving, like a doll.

“Until he breaks it. To him, I haven’t even moved yet. This genjutsu was inspired by the time distortion of the Tsukuyomi and is an S rank jutsu.” Sakura nodded at this information.

“Can you speed up his perception of time too?” Itachi nodded now.

“During the application of the genjutsu you spin the jutsu’s chakra. If you spin the chakra to follow the natural spin of the victim you will speed up their perception. If the spin is opposite their natural spin, you will slow down their perception. I train genjutsu on Kisame often and know his chakra’s spin well which will make it very difficult for him to break.” Sakura was staring at the ex-Kiri nin now, noticing that he wasn’t even blinking. She got a mischievous grin on her face. 

“Hey, I have to cook next, right? Let’s leave him here and see how long it takes him to break your jutsu. I can teach you cribbage while I cook,” she waggled her eyebrows at Itachi, noting his amused smirk at her suggestion. 

“I suppose this could be genjutsu training for Kisame. I accept your offer to learn cribbage.” He nodded at her to lead the way. Grinning, Sakura climbed to the first level with Itachi following her.

**

Luckily Sakura was adept enough at cribbage to be able to play while cooking. Itachi caught on to the game quickly and became a fearsome opponent, even without the universe’s first-time luck blessing. Which meant she was almost double skunked, one of the worst ways to lose the game. Her losses while teaching the game did not affect her, as she was usually a bit of a sore loser and she had come to expect to lose when teaching the game. Sakura made a giant pot of fragrant curry while playing the first game and was working on a mountain of rice during the second game. When Itachi won that game too, Sakura became a bit frustrated and made it her goal to absolutely crush him at cribbage. She wanted him to feel the humiliation of a double skunking. The medic was about to challenge him again when Hidan burst into the room, bare-chested and arrogant looking as usual. Kakuzu trailed behind, smelling her food delicately. 

“I’m back now and I want to spar with you, Sakura.” Hidan continued to surprise her after his sudden appearance by calling her by her proper name as he beelined to where she was standing.

“I’m busy cooking now, Hidan. We can spar tomorrow if Deidara is up for it.”

“I’m always ready to bang! up this idiot,” her blond partner appeared from behind Kakuzu.

“It smells delicious, un,” they continued. Kakuzu and Itachi echoed the sentiment.

“Thank you. It’s ready now, you guys have great timing. Should we go get Kisame?” Sakura looked around a bit nervously at the men.

“No need, blossom. Finally got out of Itachi’s jutsu. Smells amazing by the way, caught a waft of it which really helped me out. Shouldn’t have been under that long!” The shark man gave her a toothy grin as he entered the room. Sakura fought a laugh and settled on giving him a grin, glancing at Itachi to share her amusement at Kisame being under his jutsu for well over an hour. The Uchiha had the tiniest smile on his face. Everyone already had bowls in hands and stepped up to serve themselves. Sakura followed last, and much to her surprise, everyone that had arrived for dinner sat at the rock table and ate together. 

“Wow. I didn’t know we even had these spices.” Kisame said from the end of the table while he ate. Kakuzu and Deidara made noises of agreement.

“You didn’t, I have a small cooking stash sealed away in my belongings. My spices are some of my most precious things in there.” 

“Wow. And I thought I was fanatical.” Hidan said, laughing. Kakuzu chuckled at his statement and nodded.

“Whatever. I’m glad you’re enjoying it, Kisame.” After that they focused on their meals. Everyone else had cleaned their dishes and put them away once they finished eating and Sakura and Itachi were the last ones in the room.

“Thank you for dinner. I haven’t had a curry like that in well over a decade.” He gave her a small bow before exiting the room at a leisurely pace.

“You’re welcome.” She called out after him with a private smile gracing her face.

**

Speaking with Deidara and interacting with the other members of the Akatsuki did a lot to soothe Sakura's concerns about her defection. She slept well that night and the next morning decided to braid her hair instead of her usual ponytail. When she opened her door she was met with the sight of Deidara holding a box with a hand raised about to knock. They gave her a beaming smile as they made eye contact.

“I finished your statue!” Sakura beckoned them to come inside her room. They did and handed her the box at the same time. She took it to the table near the entrance to her room and sat down.

“Before I open it I just want to say thank you for thinking of me when you were sculpting and thank you for giving me your first sculpture!” 

“I should be the one thanking you, un. I didn’t know what to sculpt until you made me your carving. Open it!” Sakura smiled as she slid the box open.

Inside was a freeze frame of Ino sitting in a field of cosmos flowers, holding one flower upwards, offering it towards the viewer of the statue. Ino had a smile on her face. Deidara had managed to get her coloring correct and had even put her in a purple outfit. Sakura’s heart squeezed seeing such an accurate and peaceful rendition of her friend. She didn’t realize she was crying until Deidara put their hand on her shoulder. That was too much for her in that moment and she broke down in sobs, clutching the statue close to her chest with one hand and putting the other over Deidara’s. They said nothing while she cried and just maintained the contact on her shoulder.

Once her sobs had subsided Sakura dabbed her eyes dry, put the statue gently on the table and turned to face Deidara.

“I’m sorry about that. I…” she trailed off, thinking about how to phrase her thoughts, “You did an incredible job. I don’t know how you managed to get Ino to look so accurate.” Sakura glanced at the statue then and tears welled in her eyes at the sight of it. Turning back to her partner, she placed her hands over her heart and told them,

“It brings a giant bang to my heart every time I see it. You are an incredibly talented artist. Thank you.” Deidara was looking at her with a broad grin on their face.

“You’re welcome. I understand the appeal of art that doesn’t explode now, un.” Sakura took the statue fully out of the box and walked it across her room and placed it on the small shelf above her bed so she could see it every day. 

“Oh yeah?” Once the statue was securely on the shelf, she turned to the bomber again.

“Yeah. To watch your reaction to it was enough for me, un. Sasori didn’t gift his art to anyone I think, so I don’t think I relate to him like that, but watching you experience the art and cherish it makes me understand.” Sakura was deeply touched by their words.

“Don’t laugh at me, okay? But, can I give you a hug?” They blinked at her before smiling broadly and stepping up to her to give her a warm hug.

“Welcome to the Akatsuki, un.” Sakura smiled into their shoulder while returning their hug. 

“Thank you. Wanna go eat breakfast and then spar?” They nodded their head and they moved to leave her room. She followed, noticing that it was now one of the first days in a long while she had been noticeably happy before breakfast.

Hell, I can’t even remember the last time I noticed being happy outside of saving a life. And even then that’s pride, not true happiness.

Sakura looked at her teammate and wondered if they knew just how precious their previous actions had been to her.

Upstairs they had a leisurely, quiet breakfast alone. A certain silver-haired Jashinist did not appear in an annoying ruckus like she expected. 

“Maybe Hidan forgot. I know today we’re gonna train taijutsu and I don’t use chakra for these sessions, but let’s go to the arena. Maybe he won’t find us and leave me alone.” She snickered over to Deidara and they shrugged.

“He’ll show up. Hidan is very persistent, un.” Sakura sighed while washing her dishes.

“You’re right. Come on, let’s go.”

**

As they entered the training arena they saw Hidan and Kakuzu standing in the center of the arena, waiting for them. Sakura sighed again.

“Hidan, I swear to Jashin if you forget what I said when I let you go you will never have another sacrifice.” The cultist’s eyes sparkled as she made her oath to his deity.

“Don’t worry, Pinkie. I haven’t forgotten and I won’t kill you again. Now you are bonded to Lord Jashin though so you should work on suffering now!” Hidan charged at Sakura, mirroring their first battle, but this time he carried no weapons. It was an all-out taijutsu brawl between all of them. Sakura’s prowess made up for Deidara’s weaknesses with hand-to-hand combat and she often fought to protect them from their opponent’s cruelties. Hidan continuously mocked Sakura throughout the spar, much to her annoyance. After several warnings to knock it off being ignored, Sakura infused one punch with chakra and sent Hidan flying into an arena wall. It cracked around him. The cultist was grinning as he stood from the slight destruction while his partner yelled in frustration.

“You crazy woman! Do you not understand I just went out to collect so many bounties to cover the costs of repairs the last time we sparred? You cause more property damage than Deidara!” Kakuzu was shaking his head. Sakura couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“It took you a whole month to cover the costs of repairs for me?!” She was incredulous hearing that.

“Well, I covered the repairs costs in about a week and a half. I have a fee too.” His lower face was covered with his mask but she just knew he was smirking. Having Kakashi as her sensei had paid off after all.

“Well, if you recouped the money in a week, I don’t feel bad. Hidan shouldn’t be annoying either.” She shrugged and started to walk out of the arena, calling over her shoulder,

“I’m gonna go train time genjutsu with Itachi since you don’t want property damage ,” she sneered. Deidara laughed at her mocking Kakuzu and waved her off, the mouth on that palm smiling and sticking its tongue out at her. 

**

Sakura trained with Itachi over the next week to learn the application of time genjutsu. Spinning the chakra just right to have as successful an effect as she had seen on Kisame was incredibly difficult. She should not have been surprised to discover that Itachi was as much the genius as his reputation would have her believe. Luckily for her, she was stubborn and smart, too. She had been able to catch Itachi in the jutsu several times, but only for a second or two. Each time she succeeded he gave her a small acknowledgment either with a small upturn of his lips or a nod. 

Training her specific genjutsu with Itachi was very informative for her. If she wanted to use this jutsu on multiple people at once she needed to anchor it in the section of the brain she was targeting, because the chance of everyone having the same chakra spin was very low. A more intimate knowledge of each person’s individual chakra system made for more effective results, whereas in combat against an unknown combatant she would have to rely on visual cues such as their dominant hand and estimate or use the different application method. They made sure to practice both spinning chakra and anchoring it in the brain as it was a very useful jutsu that would give her the edge she needed to officially be, in her mind, an S rank ninja. Sakura eagerly returned to the base after her hospital work every day that next week to continue her work with either the time genjutsu or her seizure one. Itachi helped her on half of those days and she got Konan or Kisame to help her on the other ones. However, on Friday when she arrived back at the base from the hospital Kisame was standing immediately in the entrance, blocking her progress deeper into the tower. 

“Blossom, you gotta take a break. We didn’t even play games on Tuesday. I challenge you to cribbage and if you back down you’re scared.” Sakura had been prepared to argue Kisame when he had said she needed to stop her work with her genjutsu. But as he finished speaking, her eyebrow was twitching. 

“Okay Fishboy. You’re on. I’m going to shower quickly while you set up the game and then we are going to have a tournament. Loser has some sort of price they have to pay. Since you’re so confident.” Kisame was grinning at her.

“You always make things interesting around here,” he chuckled and nodded, turning around to descend into the tower. Sakura followed and beelined it to her shower. Once she finished, she donned her form-fitted black sleep clothes and climbed up to the first floor to find Kisame sitting at a table eating leftover curry next to an already set up cribbage board with cards already dealt. 

“The cards are fair and square; I shuffled and dealt then got food, I swear, on all the jutsu I have.” She nodded and sat down across from him.

“So what will the loss price be, hm?” She hadn’t been able to settle on one in the shower as neither of them would agree to an unknown bet to be redeemed in the future and Sakura couldn’t decide on what she wanted from Kisame that she herself would also agree to on the off chance she did lose. 

“I was hoping you’d ask me that.” He beamed at her and pulled a giant bottle of clear alcohol out of his robe with two shot glasses.

“I think we should keep it nice and simple. Every game we play, the loser takes a shot of this stuff.” His grin looked feral while he said that.

“What is it?” Sakura was very wary, she hadn’t seen that grin on Kisame’s face outside of combat or training.

“Strong booze. It’ll be good, blossom, trust me.” Sakura took a gulp of air as if she was worried but reassured herself that she could metabolize alcohol at any rate she wished and she would be fine. She nodded and picked up her cards. She had a decent hand and the game was very close. They kept alternating who was leading and in the end Kisame had managed to win because he counted his points first. Sakura was fuming as he delightedly poured her a shot. As she brought it close to her face, a waft of fumes hit her nose. It burned.

“Kisame. Tell me. Is this straight ethanol?” 

“No, I made it myself though and it is damn strong. I would guess 80% alcohol?” He never stopped smiling while she held the shot. Sakura sighed. No matter how much she could hold off the effects of normal alcohol drinking, ingesting toxic levels of alcohol would have side effects no matter what since she couldn’t visibly heal herself as an admittance of cheating in their bet. She downed the shot and it burned. When she had been training under Tsunade, Sakura’s alcohol tolerance had risen considerably, but as she had focused on the hospital and then combat she drank less and less, and her tolerance fell back down to her original below-average level. Sakura was immediately tipsy, even staving off most of the alcohol. Grinning slightly at Kisame, she gathered the cards up to shuffle and deal. He grinned back.

“See, a break can be fun, Sakura.” She looked up from her shuffling to stare at him quizzically.

“You called me Sakura. You never call me Sakura. Also, a break for me usually doesn’t include drinking so we’ll see how much fun I have.” She focused again on shuffling the cards well so this time the cards would be in her favor instead. Finally, she dealt. This game went much the same and Sakura had an uncomfortable lead and did not end up winning for the same reason as the last game. She groaned as the man poured her a shot. He did pour one for himself though. They cheered their shots and downed them. Sakura, even while staving off most of the effects of the alcohol, was now drunk.

“You drink poison, Kisame. Next time warn me we’ll play a drinking game and I’ll bring the booze.” 

“No, I made this! I want to use this!” Kisame Hoshigaki, the Scourge of the Hidden Mist, was pouting his insistence on using his homebrewed alcohol. She was shocked and agreed to placate him. Grinning, he started shuffling the cards.

“Kisame.” A voice from beyond the entrance gate into the room they were playing in called out. The shark ninja froze in his shuffling of cards. Sakura looked up to see Itachi striding into the room, looking annoyed. The man in question slowly looked over his shoulder at his partner.

“Uh oh. I forgot we were gonna do sword practice today, Itachi! I decided Blossom here needed a break from all her training and we’re playing cribbage. Sorry!”

“Hn. That is disappointing.” Itachi looked down at their board and turned to leave.

“Wait! Itachi! I have a great idea!” He paused in his retreat and Sakura continued, “Let me just make this board into a three-person cribbage board really quick and I’ll teach you both how to play that way!” As she declared her intentions she rose and went to the piece of wall she had extracted the board out of originally and pinched off two more pieces to make into pegs. 

“It looks as if you both are well into your tournament and intoxication, so I will have to pass on this invitation. Thank you for the offer.” He continued to walk towards the gate. Sakura dove for Itachi and grabbed his arm. His body tensed even before she had made contact and his eyes flashed down at her, sharingan bright.

“Come on, it’ll be fun! You enjoyed two person cribbage! It is different enough to merit playing through three person cribbage at least once! And, you’ll probably annihilate us like this. Please?” She looked up at him with a wide, relaxed smile. He released a tiny sigh and nodded. Kisame watched this interaction with interest. Sakura cheered and turned back to the table with Itachi’s new pegs in hand. She withdrew a senbon from her pouch and looked at the board. When making it initially, she hadn’t expected to play cribbage with anyone but Kisame. She would have to redo the spacing of all of the holes to fit another player. Withdrawing two more senbon from her pouch, Sakura saturated the board with clay-like earth chakra and squished the holes closed. Her chakra was maintaining the shape and thickness of the board while the stone was malleable. Picking up the senbon and holding them in a straight row she made a new 120 hole track that seated a third player. Itachi and Kisame both watched her work.

“That is a very interesting use of an earth affinity, especially while intoxicated.” Once she made a single winning hole, she looked up and grinned at Itachi.

“I may be drunk, but I would have to be totally out of it or unconscious to be unable to wield chakra. I wasted some though. I don’t have my normal control.” She frowned at that before continuing.

“Anyways. Ready to play?” They nodded and Itachi sat next to Kisame, across from Sakura. Three person cribbage was different as the play phase of the game usually went quickly with three people adding their cards together. Strategies for discarding a card into the cribs were different as you only discard one card instead of two. Maintaining hands worth more points instead of relying on the play phase to gain points worked better in three person cribbage as well. Kisame had a very rough start to the game and barely moved from the beginning of the board. Meanwhile, Itachi and Sakura were flying through, having a very even game. 

“God, if this were a two person game I’d be pegging so many points and we wouldn’t be back and forth like this!” She cried as he overtook her for the leading player again. He smirked at her.

“You have yet to beat me at your game of choice, Sakura.” She ground her teeth and focused on the game. Kisame stared at the two of them, mainly Itachi. Was the stoic Uchiha happily participating in banter? She managed to take back the lead on the home stretch of the game and most likely would have won the game much to her delight when a paper missive flew into the room and landed in front of Sakura.

Please report to Lord Pain immediately.

She frowned at paper and looked up at the questioning faces of Itachi and Kisame.

“I guess I have to report to Lord Pain. Ugh I would have totally won!” Sakura rose from her chair pouting and crossed her arms. Uncrossing them just as quick, she told them to continue as if she was still there and just deal an extra card into the crib from her. Kisame grumbled that two person cribbage is better and they should switch back to that but Itachi nodded. Sakura strode from the room and ascended to the top of the tower. She placed one hand glowing with medical chakra on her abdomen near her liver and the other one her forehead while she walked to clear her system of the alcohol. By the time she was entering Pain’s office she was clearing the last remnants of a headache from her system, completely sober. Konan was seated on the couch along the wall to her right when entering. She sat down across from Pain. Cutting to the chase, Pain announced:

“Konoha trackers have been spotted in the area your mission was in. How will you proceed from here? I have let you devise your own plan for dealing with your village as per our compromise and I now need to know your plans.”

Chapter Text

Sakura shakily exhaled hearing the news that Konoha was already on the move looking for her. 

“Well, I didn’t leave any trace to be followed and I’m assuming Itachi and Kisame didn’t either even if Kisame was badly injured. We’ll let Konoha look for me for a while, make ‘em sweat a bit. Once they’re really anxious after about a month we’ll send one of Itachi’s crows to the Hokage requesting a meeting at the Valley of the End. I don’t know who will come out to see me but they’ll be very high ranking and with a team to support and protect them. Kisame and Itachi will be outside of Konoha two days before my requested meeting date and the rest of us will be at the Valley of the End waiting for Konoha to show up. I do expect Naruto to get loud and upset and he will need to be held away from entering conflict with us by most likely Kakuzu and his wires. His reaction is anticipated and I have faith in him. There are more details that I can write up in a report for you so you are aware of everything.” Sakura stared at Pain as she finished recounting the basics of her plan. He nodded at her words.

“Who will meet us there by your estimate?” Sakura pursed her lips at his question and thought about high-ranking shinobi in Konoha and Tsunade.

“I would expect perhaps Jiraiya or Kakashi to be our audience. They’d have to be someone Tsunade would trust to not bullshit her because this is so serious and unexpected.” Sakura shrugged. She hadn’t been around the Hokage’s decision making table in a while but she thought she still understood the blonde woman’s patterns. Konan’s voice rose from the edge of the room:

“Why the Valley of the End?”

“None of the Hidden Villages know where the Akatsuki are or who they are affiliated with aside from confirmed sightings, which I know all of unless there have been recent ones. There is suspicion that the Akatsuki are associated with the Village Hidden in the Sound due to Orochimaru's old reputation. Deidara’s ability to transport all of us on their bird will remove our scent trail back to Ame too,” Pain and Konan were both nodding at her words, the latter with an impressed look on her face.

“I see you’ve put a great deal of thought into the strategy of this plan. For your sake, I hope it goes well, Sakura.” Pain was dead serious as he made eye contact with her while expressing that sentiment. She took that as a dismissal and nodded low to him and Konan before leaving the office. She decided to go to sleep for the night, as the gravity of her defection was settling on her shoulders. Sakura swung back by the dining room to see what Kisame and Itachi were up to, though mainly to see if Kisame was drunk.

Upon entering the dining room she saw Kisame aggressively offering Itachi a shot of the poison, while the Uchiha fended off his drunken advances with one hand and the other hand had a vice grip on Kisame’s upper arm. Sakura chuckled seeing the display, and both men turned to her. 

“Blossom! You’re back! Let’s play another game!” Kisame was loud in his eagerness to continue their wager. Itachi watched her silently, sharingan catching all her minute expressions. 

“Thanks Kisame, but I’m going to go to bed. I just had a question and a favor to ask Itachi, if he wouldn’t mind.” The ex-Kiri nin pouted while Itachi managed to look even more attentive, all the while he never actually stopped looking at her face. 

“I was wondering if you are capable of having multiple crows summoned and able to communicate over vast distances, and also if we can work a lot with defensive barrier jutsu that can be activated immediately with prior preparation.” Sakura could see his brow furrow ever so slightly at her request. 

“Yes, the crows can communicate with each other and myself over any distance. I could not send a message to you, however. We can work with the genjutsu you requested. I take it the timeline for your defection has been made?” She grimaced at his words. 

“Yeah. Be on standby and ready in a month.” He nodded.

“Blossom, you gotta play another game with Itachi, you guys are tied in cribbage for the night!” Kisame was adamant about this. Sakura was shaking her head the whole time he was struggling to form clear speech.

“We can play another time. I would like to go to bed actually.” Itachi nodded at her and from Kisame’s yelp she could tell he had tightened his grip on the taller man’s arm, causing the latter to also nod to her. 

“Goodnight, Sakura.” She smiled at him and then at Kisame, who was looking at his partner with frank incredulity on his face.

“Goodnight, Itach', Kisame.” With that, she turned and left the room. The last thing she heard was Kisame loudly belching while yelling “What the hell was that?!” at Itachi. Sakura was amused at their camaraderie as she slowly made her way to her room for the night. 

After brushing her teeth, she kept low lights on in her room and moved Deidara’s statue onto her nightstand. She stared at the little rendition of Ino, peacefully offering her a flower. Her vision was clouded by tears and she blinked them away as she imagined what Ino would say about her current situation. She knew her friend wouldn't be impressed at the fact that Sakura had defected. As the heiress to the Yamanaka clan (which now was Ino's younger sister, Inoru, who had been born the year before Ino's death) Ino would have unwavering loyalty to Konoha, and wouldn't hesitate to die rather than betray it. But for Sakura, things were different.

Sakura had civilian parents and therefore a civilian background. When her parents had died in the Konoha Crush, Sakura fell into her training almost to the point of neglecting every other aspect of her life. There had been no other aspects to her life to focus on then. Her ninja income had helped her parents when their business had been slow. Even the business had been destroyed in the Crush. Ino had been there to help her through the worst of her grief and assist her with living whenever the blonde hadn’t been away on missions, which was something Sakura had never quite been able to express how thankful she was to her friend at the time. Then when Ino had died, Sakura disconnected from others almost entirely. Team 7 had continued in their search for Sasuke while she went off the deep end of depression. She interacted with Tsunade during her training and with patients at the hospital, but that was it. She had no other meaningful way of connecting to the people of Konoha after Ino’s death. Sakura tried to fill the void in her life with achievements, which was an unsustainable way of life. She could recognize her value as a medic as she was one of the most highly sought after shinobi in the village for being named in mission requests, thus when the Akatsuki came knocking it had been a no-brainer to negotiate her loyalties for something she believed in. 

Though… I hope you aren't disappointed in me. I don't know if I would have done the same if you were still here, Ino-Pig. I do feel good about protecting Naruto and probably preventing another war. I think I did the right thing and I hope you agree.

Sakura smiled at the statue and laid down to go to sleep. The next day when she awoke she realized she dreaded spending time at the hospital. She needed to work on her jutsu to prepare for her meeting with Konoha. Dragging herself out of her warm bed, she brushed her teeth then marched up to Pain’s office. Knocking on the door and waiting a polite amount of time before entering, Sakura walked into his office, interrupting a conversation between Pain and Kakuzu, the latter of whom snarled at her as she entered. 

“I’m sorry to interrupt but I need a pager. I can’t waste my time overseeing at the hospital right now when I need to focus on our meeting with Konoha. I don’t know if we have some equipment available for use so here I am.” Kakuzu turned back to Pain when she finished speaking.

“Looks like she’s not making herself useful at the hospital anymore. Send her and Deidara on their own damn missions to recover the damages to the arena.” Sakura scoffed at him, but could tell she had walked into a heated conversation about herself. Pain shut his eyes and sighed before coolly looking at Kakuzu’s irritated face.

“We do have pagers available to you, Sakura. Kakuzu, she should be focusing on her test for Naruto and Konoha. Just because she isn’t bringing in material wealth right now doesn’t mean she is not providing other kinds of wealth to Amegakure. Sakura is still going to be available to the hospital to provide treatment if her specific skills are necessary, and there is already one Ame shinobi able to help at the hospital with minor injuries to allow her such leeway. Her student, if I need to remind you. Two months ago we had zero shinobi able to use medical ninjutsu on another person with any finesse. I can send Hidan or Kisame to do these bounties for our funds if you would prefer, but Itachi is helping Sakura with genjutsu for her defection and you yourself have asked me to not send Hidan on bounties anymore unless you go with him. I suppose I could send Hidan and Deidara if you wish?” Kakuzu sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

 “I’m surrounded by children. I will be back in three weeks, as requested.” He rose from the chair across from Pain and turned to leave, glaring at Sakura as he passed her. As Kakuzu exited Pain’s office, Konan materialized in the doorway with a pager system in hand. Sakura thanked them both and traveled like a bat out of hell to the hospital, arriving within half a minute of leaving the tower. She was barely wet, even though it was steadily raining outside. The Akatsuki ring had a seal always activated so she didn't get wet in the rain unless she allowed it, but she had thought it felt odd so she always had it disabled unless she was going to be outside for an extended time. Naomi looked shocked to see Sakura appear suddenly in front of her in different grooming than usual.

“Sorry for wearing pajamas but I can’t come to the hospital every day like I have been for the next month or so. I have a really important project I need to work on so here is a pager transmitter so you can call me if there is an emergency you need help with. I can be here in under twenty seconds if I need to be.” Naomi took the transmitter Sakura was handing to her and nodded her understanding at her words.

“Of course, Lady Sakura. Thank you for setting up this pager. Good luck on your project, I hope it goes how you want it to.” Sakura smiled at the woman.

“Thank you. Have a good day.” Sakura disappeared from the front desk and a few seconds later reappeared at the Akatsuki base. She descended to the dining level and there found Deidara, Kisame, and Itachi. She smiled at seeing Kisame and Deidara sitting together, the former eating, while Itachi was already washing his dishes in the sink. 

“I am no longer reporting to the hospital daily, instead I have a pager,” she gestured to the device attached to her pouch at her hip, “I need a failsafe in case things don’t go how I would prefer with my defection, which is why I asked Itachi to help me make a brand new kind of genjutsu barrier.” She was explaining this to her partner, who was the only one who did not know that, although Kisame might be foggy on the details too. Deidara nodded at her words.

“Don’t worry though Dei, I still want to train ninjutsu and taijutsu like normal,” they were voicing small agreement with her plan while leveling a cool gaze at the Uchiha, “but, with some of my new free time without the hospital Itachi’s medicine will be finished. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long.” She turned to look at the Uchiha. He shrugged.

“Hn.” Sakura rolled her eyes at his predictable response and grabbed some fruit for a quick breakfast. 

“Okay well don’t have too bad a time with Uchiha, un. I’m off to do some art, bang!” Her partner rose from the table and strode from the room, giving her a small smile and wave as they passed. Sakura quickly finished her breakfast and washed her hands. When she was ready to begin training, she turned to Itachi, who in turn pulled stakes that were covered in meticulous writing out of his pack and placed them on a nearby table.

“These are prepared to cast a similar genjutsu barrier to the one you cast when we first found you. Each stake is covered with the exact same set of seals. When writing the jutsu on the stake you have to channel a consistent, fine stream of chakra through your hand, through the pen, and into the ink. You can’t stop the chakra flow once you have begun, otherwise the jutsu will fail. Also, you have to write in an activation sequence of hand signs to begin the jutsu. If you plan on using this in conjunction with your seizure genjutsu I would recommend writing out both jutsu on the same stake and using two or more separate activations. Each stake should be no more than twenty meters apart from another to ensure there are no holes in the barrier.” Sakura was nodding along to Itachi’s explanation and moved close to inspect the stakes on the table. They were covered with painstakingly clear seals in absolutely straight lines up and down each one. She looked over each until she saw what she thought was the activation sequence Itachi had used on the stakes.

“Boar, monkey, dragon repeated three times?” She looked up to him with a questioning expression. 

“That order of hand signs is cumbersome and never used, which makes it perfect for an activation of something you don’t want anyone else stumbling on.” She nodded, it made perfect sense that a very awkward and rare combination of hand signs would be used for barriers like this. 

“Here is a pen with chakra ink and some paper. Practice on streaming your chakra through it and into the ink while you write. Don’t interrupt any seal once you begin writing it. Once you are able to consistently write with the pen with chakra-ready seals, come get me and I will help you structure the jutsu on the stake. Kisame and I are going to practice swords today now that he is sober.” The shark ninja grinned and scratched his head where he sat. Sakura laughed and took the pen and paper from Itachi.

“Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.” 

“Hn.” Kisame rose from his seat and the pair strode from the room. Sakura sat down and got to work practicing writing with chakra ink. It was surprisingly difficult to send her chakra through the pen, which was not receptive to her chakra, and then into the ink which was. It took Sakura several attempts, fine-tuning each time before she wrote a successful seal. She stared at the stakes covered in successful, consecutive, sometimes connected seals that were the exact same on each stake. Again, Sakura was impressed at Itachi’s skill. She practiced writing Itachi’s activation sequence several times, and when she successfully wrote it three times she created her own activation sequence for the second jutsu to be on each stake - Ram, Boar, Ox. Once she successfully wrote that several times she carefully studied each stake. It seemed like the jutsu was repeated on the stake several times, all facing different directions. If Sakura was to cover a large enough area, and have two jutsu per stake it would take a monstrous amount of chakra. Gritting her teeth, she hoped she was wrong so she went downstairs to get Itachi. 

The man she was looking for had an upper hand on Kisame. She didn’t leave the stairs and opted to watch their match. Kisame was hungover and she could tell the clanging of the swords hurt his head while Itachi pressed those small advantages. The Uchiha managed to disarm his opponent shortly after, and after miming a death blow to his partner, turned to face her. 

“Would you rather discuss the structure of writing the jutsu on the stakes or practice layering medical genjutsu on top of a genjutsu barrier? You will need to practice the actual jutsu before writing it out so you fully understand it and what you need to write on the stakes.” Sakura nodded.

“Let’s practice the genjutsu, I looked over the stakes and think I know how you wrote them. You repeated the jutsu on each stake several times, facing in different directions. I assume facing a different stake, connecting them in a web of jutsu. This is going to take a lot of chakra, isn’t it?” Itachi nodded.

“You are correct on both accounts. The amount of chakra you use is entirely dependent on how large an area you decide to cover with stakes. Making sure Konoha will be where you want them will be entirely up to you and even then it could easily go wrong. The activation and then maintenance of the barrier will use your chakra if you need it.” Sakura mentally calculated the area she was planning on covering with stakes and gulped. As a last resort tactic, she would without question use her reserves, but she believed in her ability to talk down Konoha. 

“Alright. How would I combine these jutsu into one barrier?"

"Hmm… casting either the genjutsu barrier first or the targeted sensory genjutsu with the other being applied seconds later. Once you have successfully cast it you will be able to write it out into seals. This jutsu is ideal against single-targets though, when you can utilize time genjutsu structure into the placement of the sensory genjutsu.” She nodded and began to gather chakra to make a small genjutsu barrier over Kisame and Itachi. Sakura began spinning the chakra as she formed the barrier as they were both right-handed. Their eyes lost focus as the jutsu took effect and Sakura began molding chakra in her seizure genjutsu technique. Itachi was breaking out of the time genjutsu as the seizure one was taking effect on them both. He was cognizant again within seconds after applying the seizure jutsu. Kisame was stuck in her jutsu however, which she took as a small success. 

“You have to know the hand sign sequence for these jutsu as if your life depends on it, because it does. That speed will not be sufficient in a battle amongst Kage level ninja.” Gritting her teeth together, Sakura readied herself for another attempt to catch the Uchiha in her combination jutsu before calling their experiments a success. After several handfuls of attempts, Sakura became frustrated. Kisame had broken out of her jutsu once while she practiced against Itachi, and she had caught him in it again with ease. Out of her frustration, she decided to swap up her application method against the legendary Uchiha. She gave him a blank-seizure first then flew through the application for the time genjutsu. He was stuck in it for more than two minutes. Sakura knew he really was stuck in her jutsu because she was cheering and hollering and neither Itachi or Kisame responded. 

Once he finally broke out of it, Sakura was standing right next to him with a kunai on his throat, grinning. Itachi couldn’t hide his frank shock to find himself in such a vulnerable position. Sakura crowed and withdrew her kunai.

“I’m not as versed in the time distortion jutsu as medical ninjutsu, or at least, sensory genjutsu mimicking medical ninjutsu. Once I swapped them up the seizure genjutsu held you for long enough for me to cast the time one. I’ll do that for the stakes too I think.” Itachi nodded at her words.

“This is an impressive jutsu, especially if the barrier works if you need to use it. Well done.” Sakura stared at Itachi, now the one unable to hide her shock or slight color in her cheeks. She shook herself slightly and gave a polite bow.

“I’m going to continue practicing but down in the lab now, I won’t impose on more of your and Kisame’s training. I couldn’t have done it without you though, thank you.” Sakura didn’t let herself look at Itachi’s face as she rose and retreated down the stairs. She just knew his sharingan was watching her.

Down in the lab Sakura summoned a clone to work on Itachi’s medicine and to begin producing the next ingredient. It had taken a while for the first ingredient to purify and then be boiled out of solution. While her clone worked to make the medicine, Sakura practiced her hand signs for her combination jutsu. Itachi was right in that her speed in performing the jutsu would be the drawback, alongside chakra. She made sure to practice the activation sequences the most out of all of the hand sign combinations. To get her hand sign speed up to where she was satisfied was going to take some dedicated work. Sakura made herself comfortable in the lab. 

She practiced her hand signs for several more days before she got them up to a speed that was satisfactory. Once there, Sakura began drafting the written out jutsu. To write out a jutsu instead of crafting it with chakra was a logical puzzle, to see if the energy would keep flowing with minimal correction. Knowing her activation sequence and how it left the chakra the stakes would channel, and how the chakra needed to end up (alongside the hand signs she actually used when casting it), Sakura would write out every minute change in chakra in her own symbolic jargon before translating it into proper seals. After she had the jutsu draft complete, Sakura went to find Itachi. 

It took her many minutes to find the stoic man, and she searched all of their base. She eventually did find him on top of Pain Tower, staring melancholically out into the rain. He allowed himself to get wet, and he was drenched. She cleared her throat, not wanting to intrude on his brooding any more than she already had. He turned around slowly, and she saw his haunted expression as his sharingan activated as he looked at her. 

“Are you ready for the next steps of the barrier?”

“Ah, I was just hoping you’d look over the seals I have drafted for it.” He nodded and started towards the door inside. Sakura followed, wondering what could make the broody man extra moody. She racked her mind for anything relating to the Uchihas, 

The massacre anniversary was earlier in the year, it’s not that. Sasuke-- Her eyes widened. Today was his birthday. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten Sasuke’s birthday. It had been the first time Sakura had ever forgotten it since she had had a crush on the boy. Her step faltered somewhat and Itachi did not pause. She stared at the back of his head and wondered at the last living Uchiha brothers’ relationship. 

Surely there’s some sort of relationship, or at least there was. Sasuke survived the massacre that his brother committed… Itachi feels something for Sasuke enough to… brood… on his birthday. Sakura wondered about the man walking in front of her. 

He led her to the dining level of their base and she pulled her jutsu draft out of her pocket and handed it to him. Itachi looked over her plans, pointing out areas where she could combine seals or swap out two for an entirely different one that would flow better. For the most part though, her draft withstood his inspection.

“Those plans for each jutsu will be sound enough to write on the stakes. Good luck with the execution. I will be in my room if you need me.” He started exiting the room without another word or glance. Sakura watched him leave then turned around to look through the kitchen. She wasn’t very skilled with making desserts, but found the ingredients for a simple one like dango throughout the cabinets. A dessert always made her feel better on depressing days. To make her plan even better, she found some matcha tea as well. 

Sakura set about preparing the separately flavored sections of dough then prepared to boil the water for tea. She measured out the matcha powder, erring on the side of more powder to give it a stronger plant-like flavor instead of sweet to balance out with the dango she was making. Sakura boiled the dango and skewered them, throwing the glaze she prepared over the several skewers she had produced, and finally set about boiling the water for the tea. Once it was at the right temperature, Sakura slowly whisked the water into the powder, creating a gentle froth. As she plated her desserts she found herself smiling. She carried the tray of tea and sweets downstairs to Itachi’s room. Placing the dish down on the ground, Sakura knocked on his door then immediately vacated the floor, hiding on the stairs just above the living floor. She heard his door open and the pause where she could imagine Itachi staring down at the plate of dessert with a contemplative look on his face. 

“Thank you.” A soft call of gratitude made its way to her ears from the stoic man. Sakura grinned wider to herself and climbed the stairs to clean the mess she had left in the kitchen. Once she had finished sorting her dishes, Sakura descended into the laboratory. There, she produced a clone to work on Itachi’s medicine that had another week of careful mixing then a week of putting components together and packaging left. Sakura sat down at her workbench and pulled out a veritable mountain of stakes and several chakra pens she had purchased. It was time to begin writing her barrier jutsu. 

**

Sakura lived in a blur of jutsu seals. Occasionally she would ascend to the food level to get a bucket of water and then she returned to the lab. There were bathroom facilities down there for her to use. Sometimes she would grab food items when she would refill on water, but not usually. She did not know how much time passed while she worked to finish her jutsu stakes, working painstakingly slowly and meticulously to ensure every seal was correct and identical. She counted her blessings every period of wakefulness and productivity she had that her pager did not ring. Sakura had taken to sleeping in the lab. 

It was like this that Deidara found her, curled up asleep at her workbench. They sighed and cleared their throat. Sakura didn’t stir at the noise. They sighed again and placed a hand on her face and licked it. Her eyes flew open but she was still groggy. Not any condition an elite shinobi should find themselves in. Her green eyes looked up into their blue one with confusion.

“Deidara? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Wednesday, un.” They watched as she figured out why Wednesday was significant.

“Oh, oh no. I’ve already missed a training session this week and I was gonna miss this one too. I’m so sorry!” An unreadable expression passed over their face as they watched Sakura fret over her many obligations with zero extra time.

“Sakura.” She stopped fretting and looked up to them.

“It’s fine that we don’t train this week. What’s not fine is you working yourself to exhaustion every day, un. You weren’t aware of my presence that I was trying to make known until I licked you. Breathe. You have a fuck ton of stakes already made. Eat some real food, take a bath, and get some proper sleep.” She had a stubborn expression on her face as they finished speaking.

“I understand what you’re saying but I need to finish this.”

“If you keep up like this you’re going to start making mistakes and waste your own time, un. Do you trust me?” An openly soft, vulnerable expression crossed Sakura’s face.

“Of course. Why are you asking?”

“Then trust that I’ll have your back at this party with Konoha, un. That’s what partners are for,” they mockingly punched her shoulder, “Please go take some time for yourself.” The remaining vestiges of tension dropped out of Sakura’s shoulders and she smiled up to her teammate.

“Thank you, Dei. I needed some sense talked into me.” They smiled back at her and walked with her up out of the lab.

Chapter Text

"Kakashi! Your power of youth is overflowing! We have to save some of our power of youth for when we find your young pupil!"

The Copy Nin did not respond to his friend who had called out to him from a ways behind. They had to get to where Sakura had been working in Earth. They had to. Naruto couldn’t handle losing her too.

**

The trio moved at a breakneck pace that Gai and Genma wanted to call out and protest about, but both understood their friend. He was on the precipice of losing yet another student. They made camp a distance northeast from Iwa, near the ocean the first night. Despite his tiredness, Gai insisted on taking first watch, and Genma uncharacteristically volunteered for the second watch without even looking at Kakashi. There was no protest from the masked ninja as he set up his sleeping roll. As he laid there, his body never relaxed. For once, Gai did not know what to say to help his old friend. 

The next day when they were close to where Sakura had been working Kakashi summoned his entire pack of ninken. Removing their shinobi gear, he instructed each of them to be incredibly careful to not draw attention to themselves.

“What’s wrong, boss? You’re never this serious.” Kakashi did not answer and continued to take off their identifying clothing. Gai offered,

“Someone near and dear to Kakashi has gone missing, Pakkun. You’re going to look for her.” All of the pack sat at attention hearing this and looked to Kakashi. 

“Sakura was working a couple more miles east of here. She last reported to the Hokage two months ago at a compound, as per her own schedule,” Bull whined to hear it was Sakura. She had always given them sausages when she saw the ninken, “Her report is late to the Hokage by a week with no other communications. See if you can find her scent and follow it.” The ninken darted off on their mission. Kakashi paced while they worked. His friends watched with identical expressions of concern on their faces. 

When his ninken returned to their camp Kakashi could immediately tell they hadn't found Sakura. He froze when he caught sight of his dogs. Genma and Gai watched as Kakashi became more agitated, if that was possible. 

"Boss. We looked everywhere. It musta rained recently or something. The compound isn't the sort of place Konoha'd send one of their elites."

"What does that mean?" Genma asked Pakkun before anyone else could.

"There are only five people in the compound. It was built for a much larger crew though. It means if Sakura was here she's long gone." Kakashi despaired hearing this, but tried desperately to hide it from his comrades.

"Fan out. See if you can find a trace of her scent. Uhei, if she had to leave suddenly there might still be traces of her chakra around. Find her." The ninken vanished, wholly dedicated to their task. Gai watched Kakashi with an expression akin to pity. 

**

The squad scoured Earth Country trying to find a trace of Sakura. Genma was a skilled tracker alongside Kakashi, however the traces of Sakura were so miniscule he was relegated to guard duty alongside Gai while Kakashi repeatedly summoned his ninken to look for any trace of her. After a week and a half of looking, Uhei found a trace of a genjutsu Sakura had cast. If it was as old as Pakkun had suggested, it had been a powerful one. The genjutsu had been less than a day's journey from where the trio had camped their first night away from Konoha. All of Kakashi's ninken thoroughly sniffed through the area Uhei had found traces of her chakra. 

"Sakura was here, Boss. It was a while ago. All of us could only smell her in that crack in the ground," Bull rose up on his hind legs and let out a small bark to demonstrate Pakkun's point, standing where Sakura had spent time meditating, "she must have slept there. It's protected from the elements so her scent didn't wash away. But it's old, almost gone." Kakashi stilled upon hearing this.

“Can you tell which way she went?” All of his ninken sagged hearing his question. Uhei was the dog that answered.

“Not really. Something happened to her genjutsu but I can’t tell what. Feels rushed though.” If a dog could shrug, Uhei would have while speaking. 

“Okay Kakashi. Let’s think this through. What would make Sakura go rogue and take action herself?” The masked ninja started immediately pacing and didn't look at Genma while he answered.

“Sakura has always been a stickler about the rules. I can’t think of anything that would make her deviate from her mission.” 

“Tsunade didn’t say anything about transporting a message through their summon?” Genma asked.

“If she did she wouldn’t have sent us on this tracking mission!” Kakashi snapped at his friend. Gai stepped forward with his hands raised.

“Your blossom has always had an overflowing heart for her friends, Kakashi! Where was Sasuke two months ago? Or yourself for that matter! She might have thought you needed help!” Kakashi paused. 

“Two months ago we were chasing Sasuke around the whole continent. I can’t remember exactly where. I don’t think we ever entered Earth though. Rock and Wind, yes. Then through Rain, Grass, and Waterfall leading to Sound.”

“Perfect! Let’s explore south and see if we can find any traces of your brilliant young pupil.” Kakashi’s shoulders sagged and he nodded. All his dogs disappeared in a puff of smoke except Uhei, Pakkun, and Bull. The latter of which were most familiar with Sakura and Uhei had the highest sensitivity to residual chakra. The team set off and began combing through the landscape. 

After several hours of searching, Uhei spoke up.

“Boss, it’s like she was chasing something. I can smell flashes of her chakra every now and again, like she was using it to keep up with something. She used earth chakra which is why it stuck around so long, I think. Or I have the best nose ever.” Kakashi had never felt so helpless on a tracking mission before. Never had he had so little to work with to find his target. 

"Can you feel any other chakra?" Uhei focused on the ground and Sakura's hypothetical path over their rocky terrain. 

"No. There might be another trace once in a while but the only reason I can follow Sakura's is because I know her chakra. I'm sorry."

“It’s alright Uhei. We can’t stop until we find her.” Kakashi’s voice was tight. He now had five sets of eyes watching him with concern in them all. He did not see them as he pressed ahead. 

**

They spent another week following the spotty traces of Sakura into a forest. It was not long before they found their first tangible clue to what happened to Sakura. A few droplets of old blood on the dirt and rocks of the road. The dogs noticed her blood immediately upon nearing the trees and bolted to it. Uhei, Bull, and Pakkun huddled around it sniffing before Uhei jumped onto a sturdy branch on the tree near the blood to investigate. 

“She was on this branch, Boss.” Genma and Gai both released a small sigh of relief. Kakashi materialized next to Uhei and asked,

“Can you tell what happened?” Kakashi’s voice was careful to show no emotion. Genma jumped up to Kakashi’s branch and examined the forest around him while Uhei deeply smelled the area he had identified.

“Nothing beyond her being poised and alert. She must have stood here a while, there’s a lot of chakra compared to the trail here.” Genma jumped to a large branch a distance from the one Sakura had stood on.

“Uhei, is there any trace left on this branch?” The dog leapt over to him to investigate while Kakashi watched, eye wide. Gai finally leapt up to Kakashi’s branch. 

“I think so. And because I am the best dog in the pack,” Bull and Pakkun barked at this, “and deserve treats, I know this is the same trace that Sakura was following. They stood here, probably talked to the girl.”

"Kakashi, are you sure this couldn't have been Sasuke? We aren't far from Rock." Genma watched his friend for his reaction. The masked ninja's eye glazed over as he recalled chasing Sasuke months ago. 

"I was sure that I was on Sasuke's actual trail. Now I'm not. But I had Pakkun out for a lot of the rocky parts." The small dog walked up to Kakashi, who was crouching on Sakura's branch.

"It's possible he duped us, Boss. What do you wanna do?" Everyone looked to Kakashi, who was trying his best to not show his manic concern for Sakura, but the tenseness of his body and the jerky movements betrayed those efforts.

"We look at every inch of this forest for another sign of Sakura." Genma sighed.

"Good plan, my eternal rival! I shall set up camp so we can rest for the night to begin our search in the daylight!" Gai found a defendable location near the tree that would be the starting point of their search while Kakashi did not move. 

"We'll find her, Kakashi." Genma reassured his friend. 

"This isn't like her, to not even call for help." 

The senbon-wielding man sighed and began unpacking his bedroll. 

"We'll find her. I'll take second watch." Genma left Kakashi to his thoughts.

**

They spent a week inspecting every inch of the rocky forest. They found two more spots with Sakura's blood, heading southeast from her tree. They were barely more than dust now but all his ninken agreed it was Sakura's. 

"This trail could go anywhere. Didn't you say you saw an Akatsuki member carrying someone near Sound?" Genma was looking quizzically towards Kakashi, who thought deeply. 

"Yes, but I'm not sure Sasuke is involved or if it was Sakura I saw. That was later than when she supposedly went missing. If Sasuke managed to lose us so completely to pull this off he has surpassed all expectations and hopes he had for himself." 

"Yeah, sure Kakashi. But what else makes sense? Who else would Sakura leave her mission for?" Kakashi ran a hand through his hair. 

"No one who wasn't with me." He ran his hand through his hair again.

"Look Kakashi. If the Uchiha kid is involved no one would blame you for this. I promise. I remember that girl being head over heels for the guy."

"Genma is right! She never did spend much time with Lee romantically because of your student! Another way our rival-"

"Thanks Gai. Do you want to follow this rough path to Grass or report our findings to the Hokage?"

"What findings are those, exactly?" Kakashi asked icily.

"Sakura has been missing for almost the entire period of time between reports. Something made her explore by herself. It appears Sasuke might be involved, or maybe the Akatsuki. Or some entirely new threat. If Lady Tsunade can get in contact with her through their slug, that might be best at this point." Genma added the last part as an afterthought. Kakashi sighed and his whole body sagged. 

"Let's make camp for tonight and we'll return to Konoha tomorrow. I'll take first watch." Genma and Gai nodded and began preparing for long-awaited sleep. 

**

Tsunade was unable to focus on her work. It was extremely unlike her apprentice to disappear like this without a word. It had only been one week since Kakashi's team had left for Earth. She was expecting them to return within the next week. Surely Sakura was just late in finishing the final stages of her mission, too deeply undercover to remove her emotions from the situation.

In the meantime she had formally filed that an emergency had kept Sakura out on her mission for another three weeks. She had been supposed to work at the hospital during her time back in the village between extended missions. If Sakura had no return date listed there might be concern or panic that such a high-profile, village-favorite shinobi was missing. It was optimistic for her to schedule Sakura so soon considering she was missing, but Tsunade had faith in Kakashi's team. They could even help her finish the mission as far as she was concerned, but she might have forgotten to convey that to the team.

**

Tsunade was practically vibrating with anxiety. It had been three weeks since Sakura had supposed to report to her and two since Kakashi’s team had left. She hadn't experienced this level of anxiety in years, since she had waited to find out what happened to Nawaki. Shizune and Shikamaru were fielding almost all inquiries directed towards her while she struggled to maintain her composure. Sakura being missing was not the optimal time for her to realize Tsunade loved the pink-haired kunoichi like a daughter. Tsunade was unsure on if she could lose another precious person.

**

Another week passed and Tsunade was fending off feelings of grief. It was too soon for her to feel such a way but she really did not anticipate Kakashi's team of all tracking teams to struggle so much with no communication back to her. She was going through twice as many sake bottles a day. Her liver trying to fail was a pesky side effect of her trying to keep her buzz to forget . 

It was in a stupor in the evening when Kakashi's team appeared. She was alone in her office one second, and when she blinked they were all silently standing before her desk. The seriousness of the team must have been why her ANBU guards didn't stop them. It was obvious to any high-ranking shinobi in Konoha that something was wrong either with the village or Tsunade personally over the last few weeks.

She made eye contact with Genma, fearing the shell of Kakashi. It was obvious from her peripherals that the normally stoic ninja was dissociating. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. Tsunade let out an anguished wail and a few tears fell from her eyes as her head fell down on the desk. She continued to sob. The men in the room watched her, shifting uncomfortably. The desperate sound of Tsunade's heart breaking shattered something in Kakashi. He swayed on his feet. He was looking at nothing, and his posture expressed defeat.

"I failed. I couldn't find her... She's gone." Kakashi's voice cracked on the final word. It was the most emotion anyone alive had heard in his voice, ever. Genma butted into his team leader's report.

"Untrue. We did not find any trace of a body so I think Sakura Haruno is still out there to be found. I think you contacting her from Katsuyu would be the next best step in our search." Red-rimmed amber eyes stared through his soul as he spoke. Genma saw the moment Tsunade realized that he was correct and that Katsuyu might be their only hope of finding Sakura.

"Good thinking Shiranui. Unfortunately ...hic! I can't summon Katsuyu now. I'll have to do it first thing in the morning. I'll call you all when I have more information," Tsunade lowered her head back to her desk. Kakashi didn't move. Gai and Genma shuffled, waiting to see if their friend would leave Tsunade's office. When he made no move to, Gai lifted one of his arms over his own shoulders to carry Kakashi out, preferably to some alcohol of his own. The pair (with a slung over, non-responsive Kakashi) bowed to their absent Hokage and left, looking for lots of alcohol to share with their long-time friend. Being out in the village was just asking for one of Kakashi's team to find them and start asking questions. 

The next day Tsunade woke up in her office with a raging headache. She remembered Kakashi breaking in front of her and immediately summoned a section of Katsuyu. 

"Lady Tsunade, how can I help you?" 

"Is Sakura alive?!" The Hokage's voice was fraught with emotions barely held in check. The slug stared at Tsunade.

"My contract with Lady Sakura is still intact, Lady Tsunade." 

" Find her. " The slug disappeared with a small pop. A small section of Tsunade's chakra disappeared for the slug to be able to complete her task. Tsunade poured herself a glass of sake to pass the time it took for Katsuyu to find answers. 

Two hours later Tsunade lifted her head to a small popping noise. Katsuyu had returned. 

"Lady Sakura is safe and has asked me to respect her wishes of privacy. As such, I cannot tell you where she is, Lady Tsunade. You would be proud of her actions though." The slug had a cautiously optimistic tone of voice. 

" NO ." Tsunade slammed her hands on her desk.

"Sakura wouldn't abandon the village! She wouldn't abandon her friends! Where is she, Katsuyu?!" The Hokage demanded of the slug, picking up the small piece of Katsuyu to bring to eye-level. The eye-stalks of the slug retreated back into her body.

"I apologize Lady Tsunade. I cannot break the direct orders of a contracted human, even if you are my first human. I cannot help you locate Sakura. She will communicate with you when she is ready." Katsuyu disappeared from Tsunade's desk when the Hokage let out a yell of frustration. She threw her desk through the wall before breaking down sobbing. It did not take long for Kakashi's tracking team to arrive back at her office. Not even Gai offered flowery words to console their leader. Tsunade raged on for several minutes before shaking herself out of it. She looked around her office and calmly walked out.

"We can't discuss a top secret situation in that office anymore." The trio followed Tsunade to a secure conference room below Hokage Tower. Once the four ninja had arrived Tsunade sealed the room from outside ears.

"I have to assume Sakura has been coerced into betraying the village. I only know of two people who have the power to make her do that, and one of them is dead. Tell me every theory you have regarding her disappearance." Kakashi did not offer words despite him being the leader of the ninja squad. He instead stared vacantly at Tsunade. Genma offered his theories about Sakura to Tsunade. 

"So. Sasuke, the Akatsuki, or both, huh? We need to prepare several teams to investigate both fronts without sharing the major details. We cannot let it leak that Sakura is missing. Be on standby for the next week before you leave again to track her. A Hyuuga will come with you completing the four man squad. Speak of this to no one, not even Naruto. Keep him away from Kakashi in the meantime." No one could respond to her plan, as she unsealed the room and glared at the men before her. 

**

A week passed and Tsunade's office was repaired. She had begun to work there several days ago. Kakashi's squad minus the Hyuuga were in her office, discussing likelihoods and paths of travel and reconnaissance. It was then that a red-eyed crow appeared at her window, cawing loudly. Tsunade's heart dropped seeing an unknown Uchiha summon outside her window. 

“So I see you were right, Genma,” Tsunade said, not looking away from the bird as Gai went to the window and removed a message from its leg. “The Akatsuki.”

Chapter Text

Deidara had been right when they told Sakura that she needed to reprioritize her work. However, she didn’t have enough stakes yet so she continued with her writing. Sakura managed her time much better though, and she finally had enough stakes for her genjutsu barrier two days later, while eating and sleeping like a normal person. Deidara managed to remove the element of panic to her work, and she had gotten very consistent with writing with chakra ink and quickly memorized the pattern of seals. Now she needed to focus on Itachi’s inhaler. 

The chemicals had finally distilled into his medicinal solution while she was writing stakes and she was building several working inhalers. Next she had to test the dosing for the actuators Deidara had built for her. They had managed to build a perfect fit for the tubes of medicine from barely studying it. Their art continued to impress Sakura, and she measured the medicine with a smile. By her estimate, Itachi would need to use it twice in the morning and twice at night until she found a more permanent solution to his failing lungs. 

Once she was finished building the inhalers she pulsed her chakra in her now familiar calling for Itachi to descend to the lab for more health work. Kisame responded to her pulse by pulsing his own rapidly. It was quite obnoxious. He continued for the next twenty seconds, and Itachi didn’t appear at her laboratory door, or pulse his own. Fed up with Kisame’s antics, she climbed the stairs to the sparring level, to find Kisame and Itachi in a fierce sword fight, of which Itachi was on the defensive.

“At least finish this spar before you go running off!”

“I seem to recall you being concerned with the status of my lungs.” 

“I am! You weren’t though! Don’t change the subject! You’re getting awfully cozy with--!” There was a loud metallic screech as Itachi managed to disarm Kisame and his katana went flying. Kisame immediately had a kunai in hand and continued his assault.

“You’re always running off in the middle of training! At least finish our session before you go running to make out with your girlfriend!” Sakura’s eyebrow twitched and she stepped forward, off the stairwell and into the room. Itachi used a lightning release and electrified his katana, which almost immediately disarmed Kisame because the move was so abrupt. As soon as the kunai was out of his hand, Itachi’s katana was dropped and Kisame’s arms were immobilized. Sakura stepped forward, gathering chakra in her pointer finger. Itachi glanced at her hand before she managed to flick Kisame in the chest.

“That much chakra will shatter his torso if I hold on, or the wall and him if I don’t. While I would enjoy watching you perform a complex surgery, I think your time would be better spent with your original task requiring my presence instead, given your circumstances.” Sakura grit her teeth listening to Itachi, and reabsorbed most of the chakra she had prepared. Now she would just leave a massive bruise that she chose to inflict on his abdomen. After she had found retribution against Kisame for his insolent words, Itachi’s caught up with her. She started, and looked towards the Uchiha, who had deactivated his sharingan and turned to walk downstairs. There was a tiny blush across her cheeks as she stared at him. Kisame watched her reaction to Itachi’s uncharacteristic words with sharp eyes. 

“I win this one, Kisame. I will find you for our ninjutsu training after Sakura’s research.” He descended down to the lab. Sakura gaped after him for a moment longer before following. 

In the lab Sakura was focused back on her work, and explained her reason for interrupting his sparring.

“I’ve finally finished your inhaler and would like to examine you before and after dosing to make sure it works correctly.” 

Itachi nodded at this and sat in his usual chair, removing his shirt while doing so. Sakura brought over an inhaler, a stool, and a notebook. A trace of her earlier blush came back as she settled one hand over each lung, THE Uchiha genius wants to learn medical procedures from me! Me! but she quickly focused. Sakura monitored the levels of inflammatory agents circulating his system and the subsequent responses in his lungs, jotting notes of levels and reactions occasionally. A thought occurred to her and she removed her hands and turned to the pile of powdered medicine she had created. She rummaged through the drawers of the lab until she found a pill-press, and got to work creating an anti-inflammatory pill as well. When she was finished she brought a small glass of water and the pill and placed them on her workstation next to her notebook. Sakura resumed monitoring Itachi’s inflammation levels and lung response. 

When she was satisfied with her notes about all things to be affected by the medicine, she brought the inhaler up.

“How you use this is very important. This first time the device is already primed for you, so all you need to do is sit up straight, completely exhale, close your mouth around this mouthpiece here,” she gestured, “and inhale as deeply as quickly as you can. Hold your breath for five seconds then slowly exhale. After all of that you will need to click the canister down to load the medicine again. I think you will need two doses twice per day but for this first dose I would like to monitor your response after each one to make sure of that.” Itachi stared at the inhaler and then nodded and took it from her. He followed her words and used the inhaler, setting it down as he settled back into the chair. Sakura replaced her hands on his chest, recording the positive reaction his lungs had to the medicine. 

“Do you know what is wrong with my lungs?” His voice was a gentle vibration under her hands. The inquiry surprised Sakura and she opened her eyes and looked up to see his sharingan, expression inquisitive. She sighed.

“Well. Yes and no. I have a lot of theories about it and your treatment thus far has had positive results and this medicine will hopefully be an adequate bandage while I find a long-term solution. There are things I don’t understand but I don’t want to cross a line and ask about something I shouldn’t.” His face became guarded.

“What things?” Sakura sighed again and looked away.

“I can find a solution to your illness without prying. I shouldn’t have brought it up, that was careless.”

“What things, Sakura?” She sighed again and looked back to his eyes. Only to see the mangekyo sharingan, and she was transported inside the Tsukuyomi. She saw no one, and was waist deep in water. Itachi appeared before her. She noticed his illusory appearance had his original, deep brown eyes.

“You may ask your questions and you might get answers.” Sakura stared up at him, assessing her situation. 

“I really should be able to figure it out without this,” He stared at her, unmoving. “But fine. Can I not be in water, please?” The next instant both her and Itachi were standing on equal, dry, flooring. His expression conveyed that he wanted her to ask what she needed. Sakura sighed again.

“Once, when we had just made genin, we ran into Hidden Mist special ops, or so we thought, on what was supposed to be a C rank. A bit later Sasuke mentioned that his brother had been in ANBU growing up. I didn’t realize exactly what that entailed until I met you and examined your lungs. You were in ANBU as a young child,” Sakura was finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with Itachi. His expression was a carefully constructed blank mask. 

“I have to wonder if you have always had this lung disease. It is quite aggressive and my initial findings suggest it is genetic, some sort of mutation involving your chakra receptors in your lungs. My understanding of the health requirements and testing that goes into Academy students to make sure they are fit for field work would suggest that you didn’t have this aggressive disease back then, otherwise there’s no way you would have made it into ANBU so quickly.” Sakura fidgeted with her hands in front of herself and watched her fingers.

“Now it’s time for my theories,” she gave him a weighted look to emphasize that only now were they broaching territory she didn’t consider fact, “Due to this problem being rooted in your chakra receptors, it’s possible a dramatic event to your chakra system could have overloaded it and caused the entire system, or only a small section, to be affected. Or a different kind of chakra could be causing the problem. From what I know and remember of sharingan activation is that it is shocking to your system when it happens, or it seems that way to a teammate that is desperately trying to sense her comrades in a zero visibility highly lethal situation while guarding your mission objective.” Sakura closed her eyes and slowly breathed for a moment, aware of her rambling. 

“Anyways. It was bad. Sasuke told us later that Naruto went down for a while, but with hindsight the Fox protected him. Sasuke didn’t know about the Fox at the time though. I remember Sasuke’s chakra pulsing rapidly, except at the time he didn’t have the chakra control to do that. I have to assume it was the sharingan activation, because again, I couldn’t see the fight. I had the protect the bridge builder from anyone that got past Kakashi,” Sakura swallowed slowly and  breathed for several handfuls of controlled breaths to calm herself down from these awful memories, 

“Sasuke only gained the base level sharingan that mission. To have his chakra go wild like that without control, I can’t imagine the difference for the mangekyo. And now for more theory based on anecdotal evidence. Kakashi’s sharingan has caused a lot of damage to that eye socket in a way that is very similar to your lungs. I wonder if the Uchiha chakra native to the sharingan itself is somehow harmful to its host. Kakashi’s example can be and was explained by him hosting foreign chakra in his body and it always being activated. But you, you can’t be explained by hosting foreign chakra. They’re your eyes. They’re your lungs.” 

“How did the fight end?” Sakura drew a shaky breath while holding down tears.

“It wasn’t pretty.” He watched her patiently.

“From my perspective, when the mist finally cleared, Sasuke was down and unresponsive,” Sakura’s voice was thick with emotion, making speaking difficult, “The bridge looked safe enough so I ran over to him, leaving my escort client,” she snorted and looked down, “some shinobi I am. Their opponent had suspended Sasuke for several minutes, but that was enough time for all of us to assume the worst.” Sakura looked down to the ground while she shed two tears thinking back to that time.

“But then he woke up and I think everyone’s hearts stopped from shock and joy. I know mine did. Him and Naruto immediately started fighting about who had done more in their fight as if both of them hadn’t gone down, and if they were anyone else would have died. Sasuke got his sharingan from watching Naruto fall and Naruto was possessed by the Nine-Tails’ chakra for the first time from watching Sasuke fall.” She stared at him now that her retelling of that fight was finished. 

“An unfortunate mission for a genin squad to have been assigned to. Normally when an Uchiha activates their sharingan, there is at least one that does not survive the story. It is good that Sasuke’s friends lived and that he was surrounded by such love.” Sakura’s face fell and her heart froze for a moment. She was dismayed to see he had very sharp eyes in the Tsukuyomi and thus saw her reaction, but that was only to be expected.

“You are correct about much you have stated today. However, I must fix your first incorrect assumption. The last time we spoke like this you assumed I had been ordered by Danzo through the Third to kill my clan. That was your first mistake. I was given a choice.” Sakura’s brows furrowed and she stared at Itachi, bewildered.

“Kill my clan and save the village, or spare my clan and watch and potentially everyone die in a violent civil uprising led by my people.” Sakura felt tears prick her eyes as she grit her teeth, digesting the truth about the tragedy of the Uchiha clan. 

“I gave up my eyes to Sasuke that day if he ever came calling and that is why I am essentially blind now. They will cure his blindness and is the last thing I can do for my little brother. They will work best fresh so I must wait for him to need them. A brother's eyes will work better than the ones we must go to Konoha for. As far as my lung disease, you assume correctly that it is a more recent development in the span of my life. To think Sasuke still mentioned me… To think he is still capable of such love. Thank you Sakura. Your theories about the mangekyo are sufficient.”

“I have two actual questions also instead of making you interpret what information I need.” He nodded for her to continue.

“Whose eyes are you getting?” Itachi was the one to look away now. There was a long pause before he answered.

“My father’s.” Sakura shut her eyes and nodded her head.

“Alright. Now… can you do me a favor while you’re in Konoha?” He stared at her for a long moment before nodding.

“Thank you. So…”

**

They left the Tsukuyomi and Sakura took a second to breathe before resuming her monitoring of Itachi. His confessions in his jutsu were unexpected and weighed on her deeply. Her request for Itachi also made her nervous. The longer he stayed in Konoha, the more likely something would go wrong. The memories Sakura had dredged up were unpleasant, and hung heavily in her gut.

I wonder what Sasuke knows…

Sakura was pulled from her contemplation by Itachi’s rising inflammation levels.

“Oh my god. Please take another dose from your inhaler.” Sakura instructed him with a firm voice. She maintained her contact on his chest to continue to monitor. His lungs were reacting positively to her medicine but his system was being overwhelmed right now. A drop of blood dripped onto her hands. Startled, she looked up to see the eye containing the Tsukuyomi bleeding.

“I’m so sorry I currently have the worst bedside manner ever. Please take the pill I just created. I’ll fix your eye but I’m going to write your levels down first. This kind of response immediately after using your sharingan is too perfect.” Sakura gave him a significant look that he couldn’t see before writing his elevated inflammatory levels down. Itachi took the pill as instructed. Sakura finished writing and raised that hand to his bleeding eye. She healed the expected and now familiar damage to his eye that using the mangekyo caused. His inflammation levels didn’t begin to decrease, even with the large dose of the pill in his system, but seemed to be holding steady. It was truly massive amounts of inflammatory response.

“So. Even without you confirming anything this response confirmed all I needed. We will need to discuss the specifics about the sharingan or eye transplant because that is now connected to your lung disease. I will be able to complete any type of surgery necessary. In the meantime, take your inhaler twice in the mornings and twice at night. If you have to use your mangekyo, take another pill, which I will make more of." Itachi nodded and picked up his shirt. Sakura opened her mouth to speak and then shut it again.

"Hn?" Itachi looked in her direction, but thankfully his eyes were normal now. 

"I know you didn't really want treatment for your lungs or eyes but thank you for allowing me to do what I can for you. And I'm sorry for interrupting your sparring."

"Hn. Kisame enjoys complaining. Don't worry about it. You and I are both following orders." Itachi finished adjusting his clothing and turned to leave her lab, taking an inhaler with him.

"That inhaler is only going to be good for ten to fifteen days! Please please use it as directed! I'll bring more pills and leave them by your door!" She called after him as the door to the lab closed behind him. Sakura sighed and began to stew over their conversation in the Tsukuyomi while crafting more pills for Itachi. Thinking about her village's lack of consideration or caring about its inhabitants, Sakura shed tears for the Uchiha clan. And for Itachi, who carried with him the burden of their shattered hopes and dreams. 

** 

The next day Sakura began to check over all her supplies and plans for her defection. When she finally sat down and calculated how much land she would be covering for her combo genjutsu against Konoha, Sakura was finally able to relax her shoulders a bit. So far, she had succeeded in making her jutsu as successful as possible, found a solid bandaid for Itachi's lungs, and still had some time leftover. She decided to make food for everyone, and perhaps talk with Deidara or play a game with Kisame. On her way upstairs she dropped a satchel of Itachi’s pills outside his door.

Sakura ascended to the cooking level to find it empty, which is also a relaxing way to cook that she now looked forward to. For dinner she decided to make a different type of curry and rice. Sakura enjoyed all kinds of curries, as it was an easy way to get all the vegetables and protein she needed in one yummy dish. She was halfway through cooking when a paper missive flew into the room to land in front of her. Her heart dropped seeing it.

Kakashi Hatake’s squad of tracking ninja have departed Earth within the last day, heading for Konohagakure.

Sakura didn’t know what they would find in the way of tracking her, but it was Kakashi tracking her. They had spent three weeks looking for her, and if they were leaving Earth, something was about to happen. She continued to cook her meal, starting the rice now, but there was a new growing maw of anxiety in Sakura. Deidara walked through the gate.

“You really like curry, yeah?” She chuckled despite herself.

“Yeah, I do. It’s a different curry than last time. I’m now realizing I am cooking dinner at breakfast time. It’ll be good later too, I promise.” They smiled at her. 

“Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be a blast!” Konan and Kakuzu walked into the room and approached the food. Everyone defensively turned towards her as a sudden small popping noise happened in front of her, and she barely caught the slug before Katsuyu fell into the boiling rice. Sakura immediately stuffed the slug into her shirt, turned around and shunshined to the hospital, calling over her shoulder as she disappeared,

“Don’t mess up the rice!”

**

At the hospital Sakura asked Naomi if any of her students were at the hospital yet. 

“No, Lady Sakura. Are you alright?” Naomi was looking at her with concern on her face. Sakura rapidly made a clone which went outside the hospital to fend off her students. Despite trusting Katsuyu to obey a direct order, she couldn’t be too safe with this. She carefully withdrew the small piece of Katsuyu from her blouse. 

“Naomi, please do not say anything beyond what I ask you right now.” She nodded her head in understanding at Sakura’s words. Sakura finally uncupped Katsuyu, freeing the slug in her hands.

“Lady Sakura, Lady Tsunade has tasked me with finding you. Why am I being used in this way?” Katsuyu’s eyestalks roved over the room she was in, taking in Sakura’s appearance. Luckily she hadn’t put on her Akatsuki cloak that morning as she had found it to be extra humid.

“Lady Katsuyu, I apologize for Tsunade dragging you into our petty affairs. I was supposed to return from a long-term mission recently but I found a place that needs me more than Konoha does. Naomi, did you have any sort of medic or ability to respond to emergent care situations before I arrived?”

“No, Lady Sakura. Your arrival has truly been a blessing to us.” Sakura nodded and smiled to the woman.

“I’m going to the pneumonia ward, please tell my students to stay away.” Naomi nodded her understanding, and averted her eyes from the slug that watched her. Sakura and Katsuyu traveled to the pneumonia ward of the hospital.

“Lady Sakura, you are teaching enemy shinobi. That is not an honorable path.”

“Is it an honorable path for a medic to let people die when I can save them?! Lady Katsuyu, they had three doctors only for a village almost the same size as Konoha! Not only can I help these desperately sick people, I chose to stay by bargaining for Konoha’s safety against our biggest threat after Orochimaru messing up the whole continent! I bargained for Naruto’s safety and Konoha’s from the Akatsuki.”

“I do not follow human affairs, Lady Sakura. However, you have had good judgement in the past and I do remember how troublesome Orochimaru was. If you say you negotiated peace with a group as bad as he was, you have done your village a great service. Why can you not share the news with Lady Tsunade?”

“The group I negotiated with isn’t the most rational. I need to share the news with Konoha on my own terms as per my agreement.”

“And it is your desire to make your friends in Konoha worry themselves sick?” Sakura’s heart squeezed hearing that.

“Preferably I would never have to meet them again, presumed KIA. A clean break. But I have to meet with them. Lady Katsuyu, you must understand that there were many other factors regarding me leaving the village. I was unhappy there for a long time. I didn’t feel pride in my shinobi work. I do now. I know they wouldn’t accept a letter from me, as that can be forged. I need to meet with them in person and I have been preparing a way to meet in which I can keep everybody safe. I’ve created a brand new jutsu to do this just to make sure. I really need you to stand down to Tsunade. Tell her I’m safe, tell her I’ll talk with her soon. In the meantime, please let me show you how desperate these people are for good health.”

Sakura walked into the pneumonia ward, showing entire families that had traveled to get healed once word reached them of its effectiveness. Small children, frail and unable to breathe. A whole galley of sick people, struggling against infection, pain, and desperation for normalcy. The two doctors that were attending them smiled seeing her arrive. Each patient already was prepared for chakra healings, Yori just didn’t have the control for the lungs yet. A whisper went around the room,

“That’s the lady that can heal us all!” “She’s the one with the blessed hands!”

Sakura looked down at Katsuyu, who had been assessing the room.

“What do you say, Lady Katsuyu? Will you help me with their pneumonia?”

“Yes Lady Sakura.” Sakura grinned hearing this, and summoned many sections of Katsuyu in a variety of sizes, some twice as large as a breadbox, and many ranging in between the original small piece and those. The original piece sent from Tsunade made its way towards a baby. They all shimmied their way onto each patient’s chest, finding a perfect fit for each piece and each patient. The doctors looked shocked seeing slugs everywhere, but Sakura smiling brightly at them made them stave off their questions. 

Once they were all settled, Sakura flashed through several hand signs before landing on an extended tiger seal to begin the healing network. Sakura immediately felt a drain on her chakra as each patient began coughing as Katsuyu healed them. She could immediately tell that her normal reserves for the day would not be sufficient to complete the healing, and opened her byakugou seal. 

The healing finished after using 7% of her true reserves. Sakura was a bit anxious to have any percentage of her stores depleted right before she was likely about to use a massive amount of them. She would have to spend the next few days storing whatever reasonable amount of chakra she regained from today she could. Her patients all around the room were breathing deeply as the pieces of Katsuyu disappeared. The original piece sent by Tsunade wormed her way back to Sakura.

“Lady Sakura, these people were very sick. If you say you had several reasons for staying here instead of returning home, I will trust you. I will tell Lady Tsunade that you are safe and will contact her soon. Beyond that, can I share your location with her?”

“ No . Do not share my location with anyone. Please, Lady Katsuyu. Everyone’s safety is relying on them not knowing where I am.”

“I understand Lady Sakura. Goodbye.” She popped out of existence. A doctor approached her.

“Everything alright?” Sakura looked at him and debated.

“No, but I think it will be.”

**

Sakura returned to the base and descended until the food level. After such an extensive healing and using some of her sealed chakra, she was absolutely exhausted. In the dining hall Sakura wasn’t surprised to see everyone waiting for her arrival. She said nothing as she reheated the food she had cooked earlier, happy to see the rice was just fine. As she approached the table where everyone sat, Konan offered,

“Your departure was quite abrupt, and you were gone for almost two hours. Did you succeed in holding off the Hokage’s inquiries?”

“Your chakra levels are low, what happened?” Pain was looking at her curiously. Sakura ate several bites of her meal before answering. 

“The main inquiry Tsunade had was if I was alive, and there was no way for Lady Katsuyu to not answer that. But she won’t tell Tsunade where I am. We healed the entire pneumonia ward,” Itachi’s eyebrows raised at this, “which was about thirty? Forty?-ish patients. I had to use some sealed chakra,” she gestured to her forehead, “which isn’t the best for me right now, but I’ll recuperate it. She won’t say anything to Tsunade. Showing the healings I did on a daily basis convinced her of Ame’s need.” Pain nodded at her words. 

“What is the timeline?” Sakura hesitated at this question. 

“So. Lady Katsuyu showing up means they’re desperate and didn’t find much in Earth. Which is good. What’s not good is that I’m so drained right now. My initial plans were using a fair bit of chakra to set up my stakes without disturbing the ground,” she looked to her partner, “You said I could rely on you. You can get under the earth without messing it up, right?” They nodded.

“Yeah, it’s more fun with a bang! But I can be sneaky.” Sakura smiled at them.

“Alright. I need two days to focus on resting then two more for the groundwork. Although…” Sakura looked at Kakuzu, who glared at her.

“Deidara, you need to fly us to the Valley of the End so we can’t be tracked by smell. If that takes a substantial portion of chakra, you’re going to need help burying the stakes too. Kakuzu, you have an earth release, right?” He snarled at Sakura under his mask. 

“Do your own work, kunoichi.”

“Kakuzu and Konan will assist with burying the stakes, Sakura. Focus on recovering your chakra.” Pain assured her. 

“Thank you. Those stakes are my insurance that everything will end peacefully, no matter what. Kakuzu, after this is all over I plan on going on missions and bringing in money, to start pulling my weight around here. In the meantime, I need your help though. Originally, before Kisame and Itachi needed to go to Konoha during this, I was going to have him with Samehada hold off Naruto, because he is likely to be dramatic no matter what. Now, I think I need you to hold him at bay with your wires. Please don’t kill him, but any small wounds will heal so just keep him not fighting us. Everyone else just needs to wait. Deidara, you’ll be ready on your bird with Pain, if you’re coming, Konan hidden as paper, and a clone of Kisame if that’s alright. On the ground with me will be Hidan, Kakuzu, and hopefully a crow clone as Itachi?” Sakura looked hopefully at the Uchiha, who nodded at her request. 

“Alright. I think I can talk my way through this. Itachi, Kisame, you need to be very careful in Konoha and approaching us if you do approach during my defection.” She was staring at them with wide eyes, imploring them to listen to her. 

“Yeah, yeah, Blossom. We’ve already been over this.” Kisame waved a hand nonchalantly at her, while Itachi nodded seriously at her warning. 

“Okay. I need two days to recover and two days to set up the jutsu. I think Konoha will come immediately to the area no matter what the letter says, so we should send it in four days. By then, Itachi and Kisame will already be near the village, but will send the crow from farther out and north preferably. We will be set up by then. I’ll write a letter for the crow to carry tonight. I know Tsunade will recognize my handwriting, it’s all over the hospital and official papers.” Itachi and Pain nodded.

“For your sake I hope this succeeds, Sakura.” Pain said as he rose from the table.

“You heard her, everyone. Be ready to depart in two days.” Him and Konan left the room, with Kakuzu following shortly after. 

“Are you sure I can’t teach anyone from Konoha about Lord Jashin?” Hidan asked Sakura. She glared at him.

“If you do, I will cut you up into tiny bits and find some dogs to feed you to.” He grinned at her.

“Lord Jashin never tires of your fire, pinkie.” He left the room with a waggle of his eyebrows at her. She sighed and turned to Itachi.

“Please be careful in Konoha. I have such a bad feeling about it.”

“It was my village too, Sakura. I still remember the way to the Uchiha shrine. It’s near the memorial in the cemetery.” Itachi gave her an unreadable look. She nodded.

“Of course.” 

“Don’t worry Blossom, we’ve infiltrated the village before.” Kisame assured her as he and Itachi left the room. Deidara turned to her.

“We’re all going to help you. It’ll be alright, un.” They smiled to her, and Sakura’s posture sagged.

“I know, I am just so anxious.” They put a hand on her shoulder.

“I know. Focus on recovering, un. We’ll be there to help.” How could Sakura tell them that if everyone had to step in, then her plan had failed? They left her to her food, and she devoured several bowls full of curry before retiring early for the day.

Chapter Text

Sakura slept fitfully. She kept having a nightmare of Ino screaming at her to run. She always woke up with a pounding heart. After sleeping on and off throughout the day and night, Sakura decided to call it an early morning. Rising from bed, she went to brush her teeth then write a letter for Itachi’s crow to carry. Sitting down at her desk, Sakura rolled a tiny scroll of paper. On it, she wrote:

Meet me at the statue of the First in the Valley of the End. --S  

Sakura rolled up the paper tightly and tied it with a strip of red ribbon. Stomach rumbling, Sakura pushed the tube of paper under Itachi’s door before making her way to the first level where she dished herself breakfast and brewed a cup of tea. She ate and drank in contemplative silence, thinking over her situation.

If a Yamanaka came they could just verify everything. I don’t think Tsunade would trust any of them, except maybe Inoichi, with this. I wonder who will come…? Sakura reflected on her friends and acquaintances, with their respective clearances.

Kakashi is a no-brainer, he’s trusted with everything. ANBU, obviously. Naruto will force his way onto any team if he knows it’s about me. Perhaps Jiraiya, there’s no one else Tsunade trusts more than him to handle something this big. Sakura sighed. There were so many factors at play to make this run smoothly and how she wanted it to go. Whatever happened, she desperately hoped that things went peacefully with both groups during the next week. 

It was in deep thought that Konan found her. Sakura didn’t react to her presence until she sat across from the pink-haired woman. Konan watched her while speaking.

“You haven’t written your report for Lord Pain yet. As departure is imminent, we would like to know the details of your plan.” A scroll appeared before Sakura, and Konan produced a pen and ink from her person.

“Please have your report finished by dinnertime. If Lord Pain decides the rest of us need more briefing beyond what you have previously described, he will do so.” Konan nodded to her before turning to leave the room.

“Of course. I’m sorry, I’ve been so distracted.” Sakura said to Konan’s back. She turned to look at the sitting kunoichi over her shoulder.

“I understand, Sakura. You have put much thought into this, and you know your village best. For your sake, I hope this goes how you have planned.” She smiled at Sakura, who was startled for a moment before smiling back. Konan proceeded to walk out the room. Sakura cracked open the ink Konan had brought her and began writing her mission report for Pain. 

**

She had just finished her report by lunch time when Deidara wandered into the kitchen. 

“Hey, there you are, un.” Sakura looked up from her drying words at her partner.

“Been looking for me?”

“You’ve been sleeping for the past day, I was wondering if you were okay!” She smiled at them.

“Thanks. I just was really tired from all that healing yesterday. I’m back to 40% of my chakra, and I’ve regained 1% of my stores.” Their eyebrows raised hearing that.

“Just how much chakra do you have in there, anyway? un.” Sakura considered how to answer that question.

“A lot. If I ever had to open the seal completely and not just use chakra from it directly in a single jutsu there’s a chance my body couldn’t handle it.” Sakura focused on rolling up her scroll to deliver to Pain. 

“Woah, woah. Aren’t you probably going to have to use it during all this? That doesn’t sound very safe, un.” Sakura stared intently at their one uncovered eye.

“Dei, I’ve had to use my seal before in emergencies. I know how to not kill myself with it. I promise.” They nodded slowly at her words. 

“Alright, un. So the path we’re flying tomorrow, what are you thinking?”

“We should bypass the Land of Fire completely. On the way there we should probably skirt Earth a bit just to make sure we aren’t spotted by the Fire border patrol.”

“Sounds good to me, un. We’ll do that, it’ll be a bang! So easy. I’ll bring a lot of protein bars so I’ll be able to fly for long enough to return back here safe and sound.” Sakura smiled and nodded.

“Thank you for helping so much. It means a lot to me.”

“Don’t worry about it, that’s what partners do.” Sakura waved her scroll around.

“Gonna go hand this in to Lord Pain now, I’ll be back.”

“I just came for a bite of food, un. Gonna go back to my art! Bang!” A small firecracker plopped out of one of their hands while they carried a plate of fruit in the other. Sakura smiled at their antics.

“Sounds good, I’ll see you for dinner.” They waved to her as she disappeared upwards heading to Pain. 

Once at his office, Sakura was not surprised to see Konan in the room as well. Sakura handed her report over to Pain, and he gestured for her to sit while he read it. He soon finished it.

“You really have been forthcoming in what you need from the rest of us. You have much confidence in Konoha’s response to this situation.”

“I have confidence in my jutsu. The people who show up should be ones I am familiar with and should be able to talk down. Meeting with them to show them I’m not being manipulated to write anything should hopefully be enough. If the worst comes to pass, I will use my chakra reserves to incapacitate the team and leave a letter explaining my thoughts about Konoha fully with their leader for Tsunade.” 

“Alright. How are your chakra levels?”

“I’ve recovered back to 40% of my regular chakra and I’ve recouped 1% of my missing stores.” Pain nodded at this.

“Continue to rest. Be prepared to leave in the morning.” Sakura bowed slightly and took her leave.

**

That afternoon Kisame and Itachi made an appearance on the dining level. Sakura stood when they entered the room.

“Hi. Did you get the message for Tsunade?” She asked Itachi, who nodded and pulled it out of his cloak. She let out a sigh of relief.

“Alright, good. And two days from tomorrow is when you’ll send the crow to Konoha.” Itachi nodded again.

“You need to relax, Blossom. Even if anyone sees us, they won’t live to tell anyone about it.” Sakura looked to Kisame with a worried expression.

“If anyone sees us I will alter their memory with the mangekyo.” Itachi cut in. Sakura looked marginally relieved to hear this, while Kisame looked disappointed.

“Remember Itachi, if you have to use that you need to take a pill.” He nodded and reached towards an internal pocket of his cloak to show her he carried them. Kisame looked at her with a hopeful expression.

“Games?” Sakura sighed. 

“I was planning on meditating and then sleeping. I need to make a lot more chakra in the next two days. We can play once we’re all back.” She said with a strained smile to her giant friend, who grumbled.

“Fine, fine. I understand. Have a great sleep.” Her shoulders dropped and she waved to the pair before leaving the room. True to her word, she went to her room to meditate and relax before sleeping the day away again. When she only had to recover chakra, there wasn’t much she could do to pass the time. 

**

The following day Sakura packed her bag full of ration bars, her many stakes, and several changes of clothes. She sat down to write Tsunade a letter fully explaining her reasoning for leaving Konoha. How the suffering she helped spread weighed heavily on her heart. How she was disappointed with what her village was, and how it didn’t align with what she thought she was helping growing up. How she felt when she truly helped people that had no options left versus how she felt working in Konoha. Once she felt her letter conveyed everything it needed to, Sakura tucked it deep in her pack. Sakura braided her hair and left her room to find the rest of the Akatsuki leaving their rooms as well. She gazed across the hall to Itachi and Kisame. 

“Be careful you two. Don’t get caught. Remember. We travel there, have the rest of the day there, rest, have another day and night, then go.” Kisame grinned at her.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t kill your friends.” Sakura grimaced.

“I’ll try my best.”

The two groups split up after breakfast, traveling to their respective locations. For Deidara to transport such a large group took much focus and more chakra than they were ready to admit. It was clear that it took a toll on them and that they would need rest. Sakura was grateful that Pain had ordered Kakuzu to help her at this point. The masked ninja was no fan of her, and she was aware of that. It wasn’t long after they landed in the Valley of the End that Sakura began directing Konan and Kakuzu on where and how she needed her stakes buried. 

She had brought a piece of paper to draw out a map to keep track of her trap. She had drawn the jutsu onto the stakes at very consistent angles, so creating a web of chakra should be easy. Kakuzu was not happy to be helping her and let her know it every opportunity he had. Konan worked in steady silence. They were careful to not disturb the ground in any way to not make Konoha’s defenses be up unnecessarily. 

They camped that night when Konan and Kakuzu had built about a third of her web of jutsu. That way they were guaranteed to recover all expended chakra overnight to build more of it in the morning. They ate in silence and slept after creating a watch schedule. Pain told everyone to rest and recover chakra and he would take an extended first watch before waking someone to take over. She wasn't the one picked for the second watch that night. 

Sakura was able to help place stakes spanning several meters of space to assist Konan and Kakuzu the next day. It wasn’t long before they had almost a square mile of terrain covered. Sakura balked too though at the amount of ground she was covering. Using so much of her chakra reserves would all be worth it if it came down to using her jutsu. Pain watched her make her preparations with a careful eye.

**

Itachi and Kisame traveled into the Land of Fire on a circuitous route from Rain. They stayed several hours worth of travel away from Konoha on the first day away from Ame. The pair had been sitting in silence for several hours when Kisame broke the silence, with a nearly inaudible whisper. 

“Why are you going along with Sakura’s plan? You don’t want to be healed.” Itachi was silent. 

“You didn’t even tell me you were dying. I thought we were partners.” Kisame was not overly emotional, but even he couldn’t hide the hurt in his voice at the thought of Itachi dying from a preventable illness.

“It doesn’t concern you.”

“Like hell it doesn’t! I know this is about your duck-haired brother. What if your negligence caused you to die without ever talking to him again? What then?” Itachi glared at his blue-skinned partner.

“I wouldn’t have let that happen.” Kisame snorted. 

“Yeah, right. If Sakura hadn't shown up when she did, who knows where you would be?”

“Hn.”

“Don’t ignore me. I can see you plotting something with her. We’re going to Konoha for you, not her. She’s worried sick about us doing whatever it is we’re doing. You don’t get to pretend that everything is normal when it so obviously isn’t.” Itachi gave him a calculating look.

“I forgot how perceptive you can be when you want to. There is nothing for you to even get false ideas about. If you continue to insinuate as such she might cause severe bodily harm to you out of sheer annoyance. We are not plotting anything. I shared the possibility of an opportunity with Sakura, who in turn told Lord Pain. He decided that this was the best course of action.” Kisame obviously didn’t like hearing that his machinations had been incorrect. 

“As far as Sakura though…” Itachi trailed off, while Kisame perked up, ready to hear whatever his teammate had to say about the woman. 

“She is someone who deserves to live.”

**

The next day the pair slowly bided their time by basking in the green nature of Fire country. Itachi was more peaceful than usual in this landscape. Kisame kept glancing at Itachi throughout the day though. Finally he ground up the courage to say to Itachi, 

“You know, you deserve to be happy too.”

“What are you talking about, Kisame?”

“Well. I’m assuming you didn’t kill your brother for a reason. Imagine making him kill you because you’re too weak to do it yourself. How would you feel killing your brother for that reason?” Itachi didn’t answer him. 

“I’m serious. Because the way it’s turning out, it seems like you’re going to be surrounded by people who care about you when this deathwish you have comes to fruition. I think you seriously need to reevaluate yourself. You’ve changed recently.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You might think that, but I’ve seen a brand new side of you since Blossom joined up with us.” Itachi scoffed but otherwise ignored his partner and kept up his vigilant watch of the surrounding area. That evening Itachi sent a crow capable of using Shisui’s sharingan to Sakura’s team.

**

The next day he prepared another crow with Sakura’s message to the Hokage about their meeting spot and let it fly to Konoha. The pair moved rapidly towards the village, setting up a post directly north of it, with sight of all exits, visible and otherwise according to Itachi. Kisame didn’t dare provoke Itachi as they were so close to the village. The pair saw as Itachi’s crow flew into the Hokage Tower. They saw the moment Tsunade herself exited the Tower followed by Kakashi Hatake, a senbon-wielding man and several ANBU squads. Naruto Uzumaki rose up from the village depths to follow the Hokage. Kisame’s eyes widened to see the Hokage herself leaving the village so abruptly. Itachi stared at the departing group. 

“If there was ever a time to infiltrate the village, it would be now.” He murmured, a whisper in the wind. They departed to the section of outer wall closest to their target.

**

Deidara flew lazy circles above Madara’s head with Pain, who also provided a clone of Kisame with Samehada. Konan stayed hidden on Pain’s person as a small paper angel. Standing on Hashirama’s head were Hidan and Kakuzu, alongside a crow clone of Itachi, complete with sharingan. Sakura stood before them all, in front of her trap, facing the direction forces from Konoha would travel from. All wore their Akatsuki cloak, except Sakura. She wore her hitai-ate, which she had had to dust off when she packed it for this journey. It was still unmarred in its symbol announcing her allegiance to the world. Sakura was sure that Konoha forces were on route to her as they patiently waited. Itachi’s crow had transformed into a clone of the man that morning, when Sakura had to assume he had sent the other crow out. 

Two hours passed and there was still no sign of Konoha. Sakura tried to not fidget, to not show her anxiety to her fellow ninja. 

Another hour later Deidara's bird let out a cry, signaling her that they had seen approaching shinobi. Sakura immediately halted her pacing and looked south. Several minutes later she was surprised to see Tsunade herself climb out of the treeline, flanked by Kakashi and Naruto. Kakashi was worse for wear, that she could tell even from a distance. There were several ANBU squads accompanying them that she could see. She was pleased that she was correct in her assumptions of who would come and from where, except shaken that Tsunade had felt the need to travel herself. Konoha’s team took in the sight of Sakura standing on the same side as the Akatsuki.

The Hokage stepped forward, and with an unstable voice called out a single word, 

“Why?!”

Sakura stared at the Hokage, who was staring directly at the Akatsuki backing Sakura up, incredulous. Her eyes lingered on the crow clone of Itachi for a moment. She repeated her question.

“Why?” Sakura’s throat unexpectedly closed. She coughed once to clear it. All her carefully constructed speeches and emotional appeals left Sakura's mind the moment she saw Tsunade.

 “I won’t be a pawn to be used to spread suffering anymore, I can’t do it! We were all raised to believe Konoha worked for peace, but how can I believe that now after everything I’ve seen?” Naruto ground his teeth listening to her. Tsunade was staring lasers through her. Kakashi did not look anywhere else except to her, staring with a haunted expression in his eye. 

“How can you say that, Sakura?! What do you think we’ve been doing this whole time?!” Naruto was yelling much louder than necessary. Sakura breathed deeply while reminding herself that Naruto wasn’t as observant as she, and that he had different experiences than herself. 

“I don’t know what you’ve been doing, Naruto! We haven’t spoken more than meaningless greetings in years! How can you stand there and invalidate everything I’ve seen when you don’t even know it?" She took a deep breath and reminded herself again of Naruto's character.

"I have seen your Rasengan’s damage to the landscape. Have you ever considered what happens after the fighting stops? What happens to everyone else that wasn’t the mission objective?!” She could see the young jinchuuriki deflate a bit while he considered her words. 

“Even if that is the case, you should always bring your concerns directly to me so we can figure out the best course of action as a village ,” The edge was gone from Tsunade’s voice now.

“How can I do that, Tsunade? How can I tell you that I think you’re failing the village? How can I come to you and say that?”

“Without doing this! You can always come back home and we can always transition you away from the shinobi life if you wanted to!” 

“But I don’t want that, Tsunade! How is it fair for me to be benched because I had the audacity to disagree with you? I don’t want to be a paper ninja for the rest of my life; I’m good at what I do. I think I should be allowed to choose who and how I help.” Sakura looked defiant while telling Konoha about this. Tsunade’s face twisted after hearing her words. 

“That doesn't matter. You are a ninja of Konoha, sworn to its defense. We need to return to Konoha to discuss what this will mean moving forward.” Sakura began shaking her head after hearing this. 

“I can’t do that, Tsunade. Two months ago an unknown missing nin appeared looking for my target. I expedited my timeline in my mission. After I had completed my objective I ran into the Akatsuki, who abducted me and took me to their base. They didn’t want state secrets or anything of the sort. They needed a healer, a rigorous combat medic that could help their people from all sorts of preventable deaths. And so, so many curable diseases if anyone just had enough experience with medical ninjutsu available to help.” Tsunade was getting angry listening to Sakura’s excuses for her treason. 

“That doesn’t matter, dammit! There are standard procedures for the event of an operative being apprehended in the field. You didn’t follow them, Sakura. We need to get you back to T&I to know what has been compromised about our village and jutsu! After that we’ll discuss your lack of critical thinking in such a delicate situation. You can still be reinstated.” 

“You didn’t let me finish. They needed a medic and they convinced me of their need by allowing me to bargain for peace for Fire and Wind’s jinchuuriki from the Akatsuki. Lord Pain allowed me to protect my friends. They won’t target Gaara or Naruto anymore. Without them, they don’t even need to target any of the nations now.” Everyone in the Konoha squad recoiled hearing this, except Naruto who became more frustrated.

“Gaaahh! I’m going to be Hokage, believe it! I don’t need you to protect me like that! If I can’t do it myself, there’s no point to anything, Sakura!! Come home!!” Naruto was rapidly losing his cool. Tsunade made a hand gesture to cut off Naruto, who uncharacteristically listened. 

“Even if what you say is the truth, you are not authorized to negotiate peace agreements. That responsibility falls to the Hokage alone. Any sort of compact you think you are bound to is not legitimate.” Tsunade was clearly trying desperately to sound confident and secure in herself, but her voice was slightly wavering. Sakura gave Konoha’s forces a wistful smile while she pulled her hitai-ate from her forehead. Kakashi’s eye widened watching her. 

“Except, Tsunade. It’s too late to bring me back.” She slashed the Konohagakure symbol on her forehead protector suddenly, kunai flashing as she did so. Sakura made sure her new ring on her left hand was visible while destroying her home village’s symbol. 

“I’ve already done this. I’ve already chosen. I choose to protect my friends and village my way over continuing to support Konohagakure your way.” Sakura tied her marked hitai-ate over her forehead, making sure everyone saw it. Kakashi checked out of the meeting at that point, retreating into his head, and Sakura felt so guilty causing the most emotion she had ever seen from the man. 

“I know about your past, Tsunade. I know you didn’t always have an overwhelmingly strong Will of Fire. You abandoned the village first. When the Third died, there was an entire mission to find you! Don’t lecture me about what is right and wrong when it comes to loyalty and allegiance! If you were always loyal to Konohagakure, you wouldn’t have abandoned it!” 

“That’s different, you have no right to--!”

“Different because Nawaki and Dan, right?! How is that any different from Ino? Because you loved one and were related to another? Ino was like a sister to me . Did Hiruzen ever tell you to just ‘get over it’ and to blindly obey?!” Sakura could see that that line of questioning was already proving effective. Sakura knew he had, but not long after that had happened Tsunade had walked away from Konoha.

“Didn’t you leave because you couldn’t support a village that had thrown away your loved ones? Well, I see that too! Didn’t you watch as everyone else you cared about either died, became too traumatized to deal with life, or disappeared during a mission? Fuck!! Once a shinobi is over a certain age all MIAs are considered KIAs from suicide!! How can I support a place that doesn’t care about who they’re buying? ” Sakura could see Tsunade begin to fold at her words. She decided to continue to prod her old leader.

“Do you even know how many shinobi have died from your direct orders? Have you been to the cenotaph recently? If you were any different from the Third you wouldn’t have turned away the Kojima family for FINANCES of all reasons like two months ago when their daughter was abducted at the border town! How could you turn away a broken family when you were potentially their only hope?” Sakura was yelling now, fighting back tears.

“You taught me to be a medic, to put aside my emotion in the face of doubt, of failure and just do what must be done. Konoha is hoarding health, and recently I have also seen hoarding of assistance and resources. Our healthcare system is so much more advanced than the other Ninja Villages, let alone all the rest of everyone else. Being a healer taught me to love people in a way where I need to help them, if I can. My ‘party’ isn’t just Konoha shinobi, it’s people ”

“You trained me to be a medic yourself, Tsunade! You know what rules you taught me, ”

“Sakura, don’t--!” She continued to yell over Tsunade so she would assuredly be heard.

“One! No medic ninja shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end! Two! No medic ninja shall ever stand on the front lines. Three! No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon. I took your words to heart! I did everything you asked of me! And I even listened to the last rule!”

“Sakura--!”

“Four! Only those medic ninja who have mastered the Ninja Art Creation Rebirth - Strength of a Hundred Technique of the Ninja Art Creation Rebirth are permitted to discard the above-mentioned laws! I have done all that you ever directed at me. I followed Konoha’s laws and the medic ninja laws. But I’ve watched you forget what it means to be a medic! You promote suffering onto others now, without even a blink of an eye! You have become the exact thing you hated.” Sakura’s voice broke at the end of her tirade, raw from screaming. 

“I can’t do that anymore, Tsunade. I can’t just walk by all these sick people every time I go on a mission. I don’t want to be relegated to some desk somewhere, or stuck at the hospital all the time. This was my only way out,” she let out a nervous chuckle as she finished, speaking at a more reasonable level. Sakura was pleading now. Tsunade didn’t respond, and instead hung her head in shame. 

“Okay, fine! You have been struggling with your medic responsibilities. But how could you abandon Ino’s home? What about when Sasuke comes back?” Sakura looked at Naruto now.

“It was very easy actually, because Konoha abandoned Ino first. And besides, Naruto. The only reason my bargaining was accepted in the first place is because everyone has faith that you will be the next Hokage. You need to examine this opportunity I’ve given you and then take it. The Akatsuki have sworn to back off if you can just let me go. Share the peace with the other Elemental Nations. Make them keep their jinchuuriki under control, and we won’t have any problems. You and Gaara can do it.” She smiled brightly at him.

“No!!! I don’t need to be protected like this!” Naruto threw his hands together in his crossed hand sign to summon shadow clones. 

“Kakuzu!” Sakura called out to her comrade and she heard the telltale noise of his wires extending from his body. He came close to where Sakura was standing and began to fend off the many clones Naruto was throwing towards her. Kakuzu’s actions made the Konoha forces wary, all except Naruto and Kakashi, the latter of whom was too out of it to be on edge.

“We were all gonna be a team again! Now what am I supposed to tell Sasuke once we find him and bring him back?!”

“Naruto, I think I have a better chance of bringing Sasuke back to the village by sticking with Itachi than you do searching for him like Team 7 does. Do you really believe that Sasuke would come back to Konoha without finishing all he set out to do? Killing his own brother that Konoha abandoned is Sasuke’s mission! Did you know that part about it?” The real Naruto paused to look at Tsunade while his clones continued to attempt to capture Sakura.

“What is she talking about, Granny?” Tsunade hesitated for a moment before looking to Naruto. Sakura watched with sharp eyes.

“I’m not exactly sure, but I’d bet anything it’s my missing link to Danzo.”

“Itachi was reporting to Danzo right up until you captured him. The Third Hokage must have had a file about the truth of the Uchiha massacre somewhere, and I suggest you find it. And if you get in touch with Sasuke first, you better know enough to tell him too.” Naruto was staring at her, flabbergasted. He forgot to make more clones as he processed that a conspiracy had existed, and it was perhaps Konoha sanctioned. 

“No! You’re been fed a bunch of lies by him!” He pointed to ‘Itachi’, who silently stared at the loud blond. Sakura shook her head.

“No, Naruto. You’ve been told lies about what happened because the Third helped cover up the truth to protect Danzo.”

“Stop! There’s no way to prove that!” Tsunade barked.

“Find Itachi’s file. Prove to me and you that Konoha didn’t throw away one of the most talented shinobi it’s ever produced.” Sakura stared at her former teammate.

“Since I know it did, on top of everything else, with negotiating peace with the biggest threat since Orochimaru I am asking you guys to please walk away from this and forget about me.”

“No!! You can’t just turn your back on everyone at the hospital! We need you back in Konoha, Sakura! I don’t need the protection of this agreement! I’ll fight my way through all these jerks and take you back home!” Naruto produced more shadow clones. A voice appeared in Sakura’s head.

He is pushing the limits of my understanding and patience. If he intends to fight us, we will use the full force we brought, and I will summon Itachi and Kisame back. And then extract the Nine-Tails. 

Sakura nodded to nothing, which Genma noticed.

“She’s already contracted with them, Lady Hokage. Unless you plan on taking the Akatsuki face on, I suggest we withdraw and figure out our next course of action.” Tsunade’s shoulders were shaking and she began to nod when Naruto summoned hundreds of clones while yelling.

“I won’t lose another one!!” All of the clones began racing towards Sakura. Kakuzu laughed and muttered,

“Finally giving me a challenge, little punk.” His wires rapidly detached from each other, forming more and more skinny mobile ones. He made quick work of piercing the rapidly approaching clones Naruto had thrown at them. Kakuzu had to release one of his masks to help with the amount of clones. Sakura looked around at her fellow Akatsuki to assess her situation. Hidan had withdrawn his scythe but not moved closer than Hashirama’s head yet. Deidara had flown closer and was circling Hashirama’s head. Sakura looked back to Tsunade, who she saw had also been assessing Sakura’s allies. 

“Naruto. Knock it off.”

“But!” She looked at the blond jinchuuriki and said something quietly, so Sakura couldn’t hear. Naruto looked and said something pleading with the Hokage, but Tsunade seemingly reaffirmed her previous statement. 

“I think Genma is right. We should go back to Konoha, see if what she says is true and decide from there. If it is, I’ll accept this peace negotiation you have made on behalf of Konohagakure. If it isn’t, so help me God I will find you and make you pay for this flagrant treason, Sakura Haruno!” Sakura nodded her head.

“Of course. I would expect nothing else. Thank you for giving me a chance.” Tsunade gave her a hard look.

“You have a lot of points in your favor right now, one of the biggest being one of the lessons I know you learned early on, from Kakashi. Shizune would want me to verify your words too. You’re lucky, because I want to punch you to smithereens right now, girl.” Her voice was not as stern as she would have liked. She glared at Sakura, who stared back. 

“Well, thank you anyways.” A messenger came up from behind Konoha’s forces. He came up and whispered something in Tsunade’s ear. She visibly recoiled from his words. 

“How could you?!” She cried, looking up to Sakura. The woman in question was visibly confused and was about to deny any wrongdoing when Itachi’s crow clone disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sakura paled, and her heart dropped.

“How could you ambush us? I almost trusted you!” At the word ‘ambush’, Kakashi woke up from his stupor. Naruto let out a wail, and even the man she had only seen in passing or for hospital appointments, Genma, deflated at Tsunade’s words. 

“I swear it isn’t what you think it is.” Sakura raised her hands in her defense. Tsunade laughed. 

“That won’t work on me now. All those points in your favor vanished with that fake Uchiha!” She muttered something to her teammates. Naruto immediately summoned one shadow clone which stood behind him. He extended his hand to the clone, and began summoning chakra in it. Kakashi glared at Sakura now while preparing his Chidori. Hidan and Kakuzu were standing next to her, waiting for the attack. Sakura experienced such intense dread and crushing sense of failure about her plan that time moved slowly, and she watched her old comrades turn to attack her. They were well within the boundaries of her jutsu, Sakura just watched in complete hopelessness. Somehow, somewhere, Itachi and Kisame had been caught which completely ruined her charade. Time snapped back to reality.

Hidan was grinning at the opportunity for a fight. Deidara, she was happy to see, flew farther away from the battlefield. Konoha’s forces were nearly upon them when Sakura dug into her reserves and used a massive chunk to activate her one-two web of seizure and time jutsu combination. Sakura didn’t banish the seizure jutsu before it began to affect her, and while she quickly did so, but not before she spent a single second under it before deploying the time jutsu. That second was enough to begin to burn her body from the amount of chakra it was holding. She staggered from the massive use of chakra and burns throughout her body. By her estimates she used approximately 80% of her stores in using the stakes. 

Sakura watched as the jutsu began to affect everyone who had prepared jutsu as they dropped them and they all stood in place, with blank faces. Hidan and Kakuzu included. She quickly released her teammates from her jutsu and instructed them to fallback to Deidara’s bird. 

“It is critical they don’t get more of your scent than they already have from you being here! Go back to Deidara! Follow me while I go find Itachi and Kisame. I don't know how long this jutsu will last but fly around it for now.” Hidan seemed to notice that the jutsu she had just used was the one she had produced from her experiments on him. He didn’t talk back to her while he sheathed his scythe and turned to travel to Deidara’s bird. Kakuzu muttered, “bounty keeps going up and up…” while looking at her burns before he turned to follow. 

Sakura pulled the letter she had prepared for Tsunade from her pack and buried it in the woman’s undershirt. That way she knew it couldn’t be lost while she was stunned. Sakura turned south, and heightened all her senses with chakra. Fending off her exhaustion from her stunning jutsu, she replenished her daily chakra from her stores, eating into them more. She began traveling swiftly south, tree hopping. Something had happened to Kisame and Itachi. 

After only beginning her travels south with all her senses heightened beyond maximum, she heard the sounds of fighting after a mile behind Konoha’s team that had come to negotiate with her. Unmistakable sword fighting. Sakura sped in that direction. She came upon Itachi and Kisame fending off twelve unique ANBU operatives. Some of them were using clones so there were more than that, though. Neither teammate was seriously wounded, but the ANBU ninja were doing everything they could to prevent the pair from being able to use ninjutsu or genjutsu. Itachi wasn’t using his mangekyo sharingan. She assumed because the blood from using it once would interfere too much with his vision. Sakura quickly measured the amount of area she would be casting her seizure and time jutsu versus the amount of chakra she had left. 

I should be able to just pull this off!

Sakura flashed through the hand signs for her seizure jutsu and directed it into the area in front of her, where the battle was occurring. She immediately followed it up with a time genjutsu blanketed over only the Konoha shinobi as best she could, but Itachi was standing too closely to one of them and was under the slowed version as well. Sakura staggered from using too much chakra too fast after already draining her reserves once. She fell to her knees and realized she was succumbing to chakra exhaustion. As the world slipped away, she hoped that all the training she and Itachi did meant anything, and he broke her jutsu first...

Chapter Text

The pair of Akatsuki traveled swiftly south after the Uchiha had let his crow fly with Sakura’s message. They were able to outpace it thanks to Itachi’s familiarity with their surroundings, and soon they were nestled just north of the village. They were many meters apart, hidden in trees. Between the two of them, they had sight on all possible exits, official and hidden, from the village any Konoha forces would use. His crow would arrive within the hour.

Itachi was using his sharingan to ensure he could see the exits he was responsible for, and, realizing he hadn't used his inhaler that morning, circled chakra away from his lungs except the minimum needed for the organ’s function. He hadn't needed to do that maneuver in a while thanks to Sakura. The maneuver was second nature, as it had been the only way to breathe with the sharingan for a long while. He couldn’t use the inhaler to help so close to the village either, there was a loud click when loading the medicine for use and there was no idea who was passing by them while they waited. Or could hear them from afar.

A short wait later they saw a crow flying directly into the village from the north, and Itachi got confirmation from his summon a few minutes later that the message had been received by the Hokage and it had flown away from the Hokage Tower to someplace more hidden, but with a view. Itachi got images of Tsunade, Kakashi Hatake, and a ninja with a senbon in his mouth leaving the Tower. Another image of Naruto Uzumaki joining the group as they traveled swiftly north.

A few moments later the group and a handful of ANBU squads left the village from one that both he and Kisame had a view of, confirming what his summon had shown him. This Hokage was obviously led by emotion more than her predecessor had been. He carefully avoided the thought of appealing to her emotions about his own actions. The life of a shinobi had not changed at all, that much was evidenced by a ninja like Sakura defecting. 

The traveling shinobi had long departed when Kisame joined Itachi in his tree. Kisame gestured for his partner to lead the way. Itachi didn’t look at him while traveling to a section of forest closest to the cemetery. He gestured for Kisame to wait outside the village for him, and turned to hop the wall. He cast a genjutsu over himself to look like an inconsequential Konoha shinobi. Sakura had told him the village’s new chakra code to not trigger alarms when hopping both walls, which he used as he did so. They had only evidently changed the code after the Konoha Crush, and haven’t changed it since. Surely that would change soon.

Itachi quickly made his way over the inner wall and into the village. He did not waver as he traveled to the cemetery, staying to the shadows as he traveled, masking his chakra. He arrived shortly, and beelined it to the Konoha Memorial. It was a monument dedicated to the Will of Fire. Itachi paused and pondered what that meant to him now, staring at the kanji. Near that monument were the symbolic graves of the village's founders, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. Itachi slowly tore his eyes away from the Konoha Memorial and made his way to the founder of his clan's memorial. 

Itachi gazed down at Madara's memorial stone. Thoughts of his clan came over him. When he was younger he couldn't justify any of what his clan had been doing. Now, everything was muddled in shades of gray, except his own actions. Those were painted in the darkest shades of black.

He flashed through the hand signs necessary to put him below the earth, into the hidden Uchiha Shrine under the artificial grave. His eyes slowly adjusted to the near absolute darkness of the place. Echoes of chakra clung to the surface of the stone, fuinjutsu inscribed to protect his clan's secrets shone through his sharingan's vision. Emotions suffocated him as his eyes traced the Uchiha engraving on the far wall. 

Anger.

Selfishness.

Love. 

Jealousy.

Hatred.

Joy.

Betrayal.

Isolation.

Hurt.

Itachi slammed the door on those memories shut. There was no point thinking about those things. He had made his own choices and decisions that he must live with. Activating his mangekyo, he read the sequence of chakra signals he needed to pulse to gain access to the shrine. The pass code changed every time the shrine was opened, and could only be read by the mangekyo. 

The mangekyo was required as it was the form of their kekkei genkai that had the most distinctly Uchiha chakra activated and get used alongside just their individual chakra pattern. The Uchiha chakra resonance would be recognized by the fuinjutsu for many more generations before it would need to be redone. Breathing deeply, he grabbed hold of the Uchiha chakra, and Itachi pushed it into the Uchiha symbol, pulsing it as the sealing jutsu described. The room's protective seals vanished, and the remaining relics of his clan appeared before his eyes. 

Itachi watched as vast wealth from the Uchiha clan materialized around him. Scrolls and scrolls of high-level jutsu were stacked orderly along one wall. Ceremonial and powerful weapons along another. Everything was almost identical to how he had left the shrine twelve years ago, the night of the massacre. He noticed a set of footprints not as dusty as the rest of the floor that did not match his own. That sight made him pause and reflect. Did Sasuke know about the shrine? Did his little brother even have the mangekyo? He sincerely hoped not. 

Pondering the mystery footprints, Itachi continued deeper into the room. He was adept at ignoring all of the Uchiha paraphernalia throughout the shrine, but as he approached a back corner, his eyes were glued to a stack of papers with a scroll sitting on top. As he grabbed the scroll, memories came rushing up to the surface of his mind unbidden.  

Watching himself slaughter his entire clan as if outside of his body. It was necessary to keep the village safe. It was necessary to prevent complete chaos. That was his mantra while completing his orders. He had seen the rising violence within his clan and had even reported it to the Hokage. Now this. 

Itachi meticulously made his way deeper and deeper into the compound, until he arrived at his own home. He returned to his body as he was aware of an almost overwhelming heaviness besieging his chest. Silently he made his way through his home, towards the only room with a light on. There, he found his parents waiting for him. He stepped into the room but stopped moving. 

“We already know, Itachi.” His mother spoke up. Always trying to lessen the stifling atmosphere. 

“You always were too gentle for the clan. I’m sorry I pushed you so hard, Itachi. Maybe if I had been less focused on the growth of the clan and instead on the growth of my family things could have been different,” his father paused to sigh, “Only a mangekyo can interact with the Nine-Tails as it was, aside from the jinchuuriki. But I didn’t release the demon. Shisui didn’t. You didn’t. There’s no one else. It wasn’t fair for us to be hated, but,” His father moved his head as if to look back to Itachi, but caught himself before he finished the movement. 

“I see now I failed our clan. There’s a chance you might be able to right my wrongs, son. I’m sorry for burdening you with more. Please, take my mangekyo and protect Sasuke. There’s a chance that one day they’ll help you. Please. Protect Sasuke.” Itachi didn’t move from his spot. He couldn’t respond, his voice was thick with emotion. Several tears fell as Itachi fought to regain his composure. His parents couldn’t see him nod his head at Fugaku’s request as he wiped away tears. 

“I already have a sealing scroll and container ready for them. Please take them, Itachi. They can’t fall into the wrong hands after my death.”

“...Of course, Father.”

“Thank you.” Fugaku plucked out his eyes with active mangekyo, sealing them away in the scroll. The noises of that hasty removal echoed through Itachi’s mind. Once he was finished he tossed the scroll over his shoulder to his son. Itachi caught it, and pocketed it. He still didn’t move.

“Don’t back out now son. We may not always agree, but I am and always will be proud of you.”

“We love you, Itachi.”

Shedding his tears freely, Itachi strode forward, brandishing his blood stained katana and swiftly struck both his mother and father down. Itachi was overwhelmed with sharp grief. But he would make sure that wouldn’t last long. He would see his clan avenged, by Sasuke.

After ensuring as much, Itachi reported to the Hokage and pleaded for Sasuke’s safety and care one last time before traveling to the Uchiha Shrine. He couldn’t carry his father’s eyes with him. He just couldn’t. Every time he touched the scroll the sound of his father tearing out his own eyes replayed itself in his head. He deposited his father’s eyes on a pile of his family’s documents. 

Itachi’s eyes focused on the pile of papers now. Several sheets were clan business affairs, but there were several paintings of him, which he quickly shuffled to the bottom of the pile. He found one of just his parents, which brought tears to his eyes that he quickly blinked away. Withdrawing that painting he continued to look through the stack. He stopped when he found a painting of just a young Sasuke, which he also withdrew from the stack. 

Carefully storing the paintings on his person, Itachi secured the scroll deep within his pouch, wincing once as the sound of his father’s eyes replayed itself in his head. Rising from his crouch, he left the shrine and returned to the surface. He deactivated his sharingan and waited above the grave for a minute while the defenses went back up. 

While waiting he gazed off in the direction of the Uchiha compound. Not for the first time he wondered about Sasuke. Sakura’s description of their mission when Sasuke’s sharingan was awoken played again in his mind. His little brother was lucky to have found a group of people that cared about him so much. However, Sakura’s haunted face when he had expressed such gratitude appeared in his mind’s eye. Itachi wondered at Sasuke’s disposition. He had always been one to demand attention. He allowed a memory to wash over him, of Sasuke chasing after him and Shisui when they were off to practice and share philosophy. Those two had been the only people in his clan he felt close enough to smile around. Flickers of a warm emotion bubbled in his chest, before stark images slammed those emotions back. Images of Shisui jumping over a cliff, of the torture he had committed against his own brother. Closing his mind to the past, Itachi turned back towards the walls of the village. It was time to do what Sakura had asked of him. 

After the shrine’s defenses were back in place, Itachi swallowed one of Sakura’s pills. He had used the mangekyo afterall, just no jutsu with it. He could feel his body’s reaction to the chakra. Itachi left the cemetery, heading towards the outer walls again. He had passed the first wall out of the village and immediately sensed Kisame nearby, not where he had been instructed to wait. 

His partner came up to him and gestured to ask how much rain to summon to wash away their scents. Itachi did not stop on his path to Sakura's request. Kisame followed, his confusion showing on his face.

The pair came up on Konoha's memorial stone for shinobi who were KIA. Kisame was visibly puzzled at his actions, while Itachi quickly found the section of the cenotaph that Sakura had described to him that had space for her name. Itachi knelt by the memorial stone and carved Sakura Haruno's name into it. Kisame groaned as soon as he realized what Itachi was doing.

"You goddamned sentimental Konoha ninja. Every single one of you." Itachi ignored him while he carved. 

"You realize I need to use so much extra chakra now to cover all this land, right?" Itachi's red eyes flashed up to Kisame's black ones. 

"The Tailless Tailed Beast will be fine." Kisame rolled his eyes. Itachi stood when he finished with his carving. Kisame began gathering and morphing his chakra to sustain a heavy thunderstorm for several hours over Konoha. Once he had unleashed his jutsu, clouds manifested themselves overhead immediately and began pouring. Thunder boomed in the distance. Itachi looked to his partner.

"Let's leave this place." 

"I thought you'd never ask." The pair continued over the outer wall and started north, to meet up with the rest of their team.

They had been traveling for a short while when Itachi started getting flashes of images from his crow summon that was deceiving Konoha for him. An intense argument had broken out. Kakuzu was positioned defensively near Sakura. 

"It would appear our fellow Akatsuki are having difficulties. Proceed with caution." Itachi had already activated his base sharingan to move north. Kisame stretched his senses to detect any opposition. The pair sped towards the Valley of the End. 

They were over halfway to their destination when Itachi received more images of hundreds upon hundreds of shadow clones, again of Naruto, descending on Sakura. He stiffened to watch and pushed them on faster. Sakura falling into the hands of T&I was unacceptable.

He stopped several miles away from their team, unsure on where the enemy was positioned. He and Kisame started gesturing a plan of action when a beetle flew directly at Itachi's face. It would have been beneath notice except it flew directly at his eyes. The pair of Akatsuki immediately fled their branch but not before more beetles appeared and followed them. 

"We've been discovered. Don't kill anyone, just disarm and incapacitate."

“Yeah.” Kisame uncharacteristically didn’t argue about the lack of deaths and prepared Samehada for combat. They were standing back to back, waiting for the owner of those beetles to descend on them. A singular ANBU agent appeared and the beetles withdrew to him. 

“A word of advice, Uchiha. Disable your sharingan on the next assassination attempt on the Hokage.” Aburame insects that were sensitive to Uchiha chakra. A nuisance for sure. As the Aburame unleashed hoards of insects upon them, eleven other ANBU agents appeared from the nearby scenery as well and began their attack. 

With Sakura’s stipulation that none of Konoha’s forces die during her defection, they had no chance of being able to worm their way out of combat. The pair was permanently on the defensive, with each fending off their own unique attackers. Some of the ANBU used clones to stay far away from the dangerous pair, meaning each of them had to fend off at least seven shinobi, until the pair were able to land a blow on the clones. As Itachi had to focus more and more on the fight at hand, his crow clone aiding Sakura was dismissed, unable to focus on maintaining the chakra connection to it. He was considering using the Tsukuyomi to handle a few of the ANBU members, but reconsidered. There were many of them and he could only use that jutsu several times before being unable to fight any longer. Kisame was holding his own, but their opponents infuriatingly knew to stay out of range of Samehada to retain their chakra. They were seriously stuck.

Several moments later Itachi sensed a massive amount of chakra from immediately north of their fight. Surely that was Sakura’s defensive jutsu. If she hadn’t had to use it until after him and Kisame started fighting, it was clear to Itachi that he misunderstood his crow’s messages. Or the crow had misunderstood the situation. The pair continued to fend off their attackers. They never had a chance to use any ninjutsu or genjutsu against Konoha, the attacks they countered were too rapid for any hand signs. 

“Are you sure we can’t kill any of them, Itachi?!” Kisame growled at his partner as he dodged a sickle. Itachi didn’t even respond as he bobbed and wove around his attackers. 

Sakura approaches your location . 

Pain’s voice echoed through both his and Kisame’s heads. They made eye contact with each other and nodded. Soon they became aware of her ring, hidden just beyond the treeline where their battle was taking place. He couldn’t detect her chakra, and engaged with his attackers with fervor, to prevent them from realizing they had just received backup. The world fell away as he prepared another attack.

**

Itachi broke out of Sakura’s stunning jutsu and assessed the battlefield. He was the first to break the jutsu and Kisame, he could tell, was close to breaking it too. Unfortunately, he could not gauge whether Konoha’s forces were about to break the jutsu too. Itachi leapt over to where Sakura had been hiding, puzzled that she hadn’t come to break them out of her jutsu herself. 

It was there that he found her face down, unconscious. That sight was unexpected.

“Deidara is coming down with their bird! Let’s go!” Kisame called to him. Itachi reached down to Sakura’s limp form and noticed the swirling burns across her visible flesh. Chakra burns? Evidently her defection did not go according to plan, and Itachi instinctively knew it was because of himself and Kisame. He cursed his crows, Konoha, and Pain while vaulting to Deidara’s bird. They watched him as he carried their teammate.

“What happened to Blossom?!” Kisame was aghast to see her unconscious for an unknown reason. 

“If the chakra I sensed was her defensive jutsu, she most likely has experienced acute and severe chakra exhaustion after stopping our attackers.” Itachi laid a hand on Sakura’s brow to assess her physical condition. Pain watched them both with interest as he worked. The Uchiha took several minutes in his evaluation.

“Hn. I have to assume she left enough chakra for herself to live, but from what I can tell, she has, essentially, no chakra. She needs to get to a hospital quickly.” Everyone looked startled to hear his declaration.

“What happened that she had to use her remaining chakra?” Pain was curious, and looking down at them.

“Sakura was able to stop the fight before any casualties were necessary. She used her jutsu again over about eighteen shinobi.” At this, Kisame nodded but said nothing. Pain also nodded while looking down at the unconscious kunoichi. Deidara picked up speed flying north as they flew their cautious, false route home. 

Chapter Text

Each of the Akatsuki members had come by to see if Sakura was awake yet or not by the end of the first week after her defection. Each time Deidara solemnly shook their head with a downcast eye. Sakura looked noticeably the same as when she had first arrived at the hospital in Amegakure. Pale, with large shadows under her eyes that looked like bruises. She looked delicate. It startled Deidara to think of their partner as delicate. They had never done that before, even when she was sobbing in mourning over her friend Ino. This was a woman who could punch through any mountain and could cause equal destruction they could, unaided. Someone so fierce couldn’t be as fragile as what Deidara saw before them.

Konan had suggested opening her seal to replenish her chakra with her stores when most of the Akatsuki had found themselves in her hospital room during the second week. Deidara was immediately vocally against that idea.

“Why?” The blond looked at their comatose partner, gazing at each swirling chakra burn that was slowly healing over her body. 

“She told me once that she stored enough chakra in there to kill her. I don’t know how much is left, un. Also, she assured me using her seal would be safe for her. And she got burned. Something isn’t right with her seal right now, un. We shouldn’t mess with it.” Kisame was nodding by the end of their speech. Itachi continued to stare at Sakura’s purple seal. Kakuzu had his arms crossed and looked irritated. Hidan looked as if he was listening to someone whisper.

“Lord Jashin says opening her seal will give her soul over to him, and is demanding it. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Hidan turned to leave the hospital room, flinching and covering his ears, while ragged claw marks suddenly appeared on his chest that gushed blood as he turned away from Sakura. Konan stared, wide-eyed at the unusually physical display from Hidan’s deity, and then back to the unconscious woman. 

“That answers that. We’ll wait and see if she wakes up then.” Konan turned and left the room. Kakuzu also left a minute later, scowling but without any complaint about the situation, which was uncharacteristic. 

“Let’s go train, Kisame.” Itachi slowly strode from the room, his tall blue partner following. Deidara decided to stay at the hospital, but left Sakura’s room to look for a table. 

By the end of the second week Deidara had a functional workstation in Sakura’s room. They could continue their art and continue to keep an eye on Sakura. The hospital staff were knowledgeable about physical ailments to the body but infinitely less so with spiritual matters. Yori and Itachi could detect and confirm she was accruing chakra compared to her initial near-death state, but much slower than either of them had ever seen before. According to both of them, she still had absolutely zero usable chakra, and was a bit away from having any. People were talking about her as if there’s a chance she won’t wake up though, so Deidara felt the need to make sure nothing took a bad turn, even though they didn’t know any medical anything. 

To pass the time, they made a new kind of bomb for their partner. This bomb would spread any powder added to the surface during forming the explosive. They thought Sakura could use it to disperse anesthesia or a paralytic or something to incapacitate a crowd instead of using chakra. They even made a sakura blossom engraved mold for the bomb, so it would be pretty while causing such mayhem. It made them grin to make test explosives with flowers on them.

Halfway through the third week Sakura’s color began to get better. They had still been returning to the base every night to sleep in their own bed, but when her signs started improving they were resting in her room. Soon she had enough chakra that Deidara could detect it if they focused on sensing enough. That alleviated any concern they had that she wouldn’t wake up, however small. Hopefully it was just a matter of time before she actually woke up.

**

When Sakura’s eyes finally opened, she realized instantly that she was in a hospital in Amegakure. Looking around, she saw Deidara sleeping in a chair in the corner of the room, behind a table of what looked like some of their chemicals. She tried sitting up and groaned softly at how bad she felt. She had dreamed of pain and fear, and it felt like her dreams had followed her. Her eyes felt like sandpaper, and she was weak.

“Sakura?! Are you alright?” Deidara had been woken up by the noises she had been making and scrambled over to her bed. She gave them a feeble smile, and noticed how worried they looked.

“Never better.” She tried to respond chirpily but her voice croaked, and she started coughing. Deidara left the room and returned several moments later with a pitcher of water, and a glass already filled. They handed her the glass and watched that she didn’t struggle with it before sitting back down beside her. 

“Are you really okay? un.” Sakura set the empty glass down on the table next to her bed and looked up to her concerned teammate. 

“How long was I out?” She started removing the IV in her arm while Deidara answered. 

“Almost three weeks, un. You only started producing extra chakra a couple days ago.” 

“Oh my god, no wonder I feel like total crap! That’s so long! I used too much chakra.” Sakura sighed. 

“Wait, three weeks? I need to go talk to Lord Pain!” She threw the blanket off of her and started to slowly rise from her bed.

“Wait, Sakura. I need to know something.” She froze and looked up to her partner.

“What happened? Why didn’t you wait for me? I was right there to back you up, un. We were all right there.” It was painfully clear to Sakura then that Deidara had been extremely concerned for her wellbeing these past three weeks, and had been shocked by her actions. Perhaps even hurt by them. Sakura closed her eyes and thought back.

“Well. Once I had to use my barrier, I started panicking and I just started focusing on getting everyone back to Ame. I was concerned about Itachi getting taken by Konoha. I didn’t know where they were but I couldn’t wait in that moment. If I got everything sorted by the time you landed, we could immediately start flying back! It all worked out, right?” 

“The way they tell it is you took a major risk by using that jutsu over their fight. Listen. Next time, I don’t want to frantically fly my burned partner who has actually no chakra back to a hospital. We’re a team, we could have helped extract Itachi and Kisame, un.”

“I’m sorry, Dei. I messed up.” They sighed.

“You’re finally awake so it’s fine I guess. By the way, Konan wanted to open your seal to replenish your chakra that way.” Sakura blanched after hearing that. 

“I’m assuming you stopped her. Thank you.” 

“What would have happened had we gone through with that?” Sakura let out a long breath before explaining.

“Taking away what little chakra my organs had to open my seal probably would have killed me. Thank you for stopping that.”

“Your seal freaks me out, un. You should make a cheat sheet for it. Seriously.” Sakura laughed at that.

“Well, hopefully we don’t need one of those, because I’m never going to be in a situation like that again. Also, my stores are empty. It’ll take me a long while to get them back to full.” They looked at her skeptically before nodding slowly.

“Alright. You really should stay and rest more. I can tell the rest of them you’re awake finally and people can come here. We’ve been running into each other here at the hospital already, un.” Sakura was shaking her head.

“I really need to shower and eat something. But I need to talk to Lord Pain before I lose myself in the best meal ever.” With that, Sakura was walking to the door leading outside her room. Deidara sighed, and rose to accompany her back to base at a leisurely pace. 

**

Once they got back to the base Deidara escorted Sakura to her room door. They both ignored the fact that Sakura had grabbed hold of their arm halfway through their walk back to base and now all but hung from it. 

"I'll go make you some food. It'll be ready by the time you're done meeting with Lord Pain, un." Sakura smiled at them and removed her arm from theirs.

“Thank you. And Dei?” They looked at her patiently. Sakura enclosed them in a hug before continuing,

“I really am sorry I caused you so much worry. I made such a mess of myself when I realize now I didn’t need to. I haven’t had anyone to rely on before, really, the way you’ve been there for me. Thank you. I promise I’ll work on my teamwork. I’m really happy to be your partner.” Deidara had returned her hug immediately, and now squeezed her slightly.

“I’m just happy you’re alive. It would have sucked majorly to have had two partners die. Especially when I consider my partners to be friends, un. I don’t have many of those.” Sakura shed a tear that hopefully went unnoticed by Deidara. She wiped her face dry as she removed herself from the hug. Sakura turned to her door. 

“Thank you. I’ll see you soon for some food!” One of Deidara’s hands spat the smallest firecracker towards her with a smile.

“Bang! See ya.”

**

As she showered, Sakura replayed her defection in her head. It had all gone poorly compared to how she had wanted it to go, but she thought she had met Pain’s criteria. She was disheartened that she had miscalculated her chakra expenditure so severely. Her estimates had been correct, she was fine, just the three weeks of unconsciousness left her malnourished with apathied muscles. She would need to restart a regiment of training Lee would be proud of. 

Thinking of Lee made Sakura pause in rinsing her hair. There was a heaviness in her heart when she thought of him. There was no making Lee proud anymore. There was no one left to make proud, except Deidara. With a heavy heart as the weight of what she had done settled over it, Sakura quickly finished her shower and got dressed. She slowly left her room and climbed up the base to Pain’s office. 

When she arrived at his office the doors were closed. She pressed her ring to the lock and a moment later it swung open. Konan was standing just behind Pain, who was sitting at his desk. Both were watching her intensely.

“You’re finally awake.” Pain said, gesturing to a seat across from him for her. Sakura sat as indicated.

“Yeah. I didn’t expect it would be three weeks. What’s happened? Did I pass your test?” Pain looked at her with an unreadable expression for an uncomfortably long moment. 

“We got away with no problem while everyone from Konoha was stunned. As for my test… given that it seemed Konoha was indeed going to let you go, without a fight like you said and would have if not for the consequences of my order, yes. You pass. We will cease our operations for Konoha’s and Suna’s jinchuuriki.” Sakura sagged in relief hearing that.

“Your display of power with that barrier was impressive. I had heard rumors of the byakugou seal’s strength of course, but seeing the amount of chakra available to you is different from hearing whispers of rumors. How long will it take you to recover your stores?” He was looking at the purple diamond on her forehead, as if he could unravel its mysteries by staring. 

“Um, provided I don’t need to dip into it for any major surgeries or anything and my chakra production returns to normal as my body recovers, I think a little over a year if I really push it, or almost two years if I go at a normal pace.” He nodded at her words.

“How much chakra do you need in your reserves to use the Ninja Art: Creation Rebirth techinque?” Sakura balked at that question. What was the minimum amount of chakra she felt comfortable with to save her own life? She stared at Pain while she puzzled over that.

“That question doesn’t have a straight answer. To at the minimum save my own life, I would be comfortable with an absolute minimum of twenty percent. But the thing is, if I have to use that ability, there is a high likelihood that I still need to do some major fighting and healing, so I would like to say forty to fifty percent is the absolute minimum for the worst case scenario.” He leaned back in his chair while he processed her words. 

“Alright. You will have several months to work at the hospital as you see fit before you and Deidara begin missions. I will allow you to get to near full reserves before sending you on the truly unranked assignments.” She nodded her head at that. That meant the other teams were getting all of the highly dangerous missions. 

“Lord Pain?” 

“What is it?”

“I need to make a treatment plan for Itachi’s lungs now that we have a potential path forward. Since I’m recovering chakra, his surgeries will have to take place over potentially two weeks as they will be major undertakings. And once the scar tissue is gone I need to fix the root of the problem before he uses the mangekyou again, otherwise all that effort will have been for nothing. How I fix it will depend on him, and I may have to dip into my reserves for that treatment. I just want you to be aware of that.”

“Figure it out soon.”

“Yes, Lord Pain.” Sakura dipped her head towards him and rose from her seat and left the room. As she shut the doors and started down the stairs her stomach rumbled. She had no idea what Deidara would cook but she was absolutely famished and looking forward to any food. 

Entering the dining room she saw Deidara frying samosas that smelled absolutely delicious, and Itachi and Kisame off to one side eating their portions while playing cribbage. She smiled to see that. Hidan and Kakuzu were sitting on couches that lined the wall she was in line with. They all looked at her when she walked in.

“Blossom! You scared me!” She knew he was very serious in that moment to admit to any fear, but also knew she was in the clear because he called her ‘Blossom’. 

“Sorry Kisame. I miscalculated my chakra a bit.” She shrugged as if she hadn’t almost died.

“I’ll say! Also, I could have easily gotten us out of there if you hadn’t sent Itachi on that stupid side mission in Konoha! I had to use so much extra chakra!”

“Yeah, I’ve already been told my little maneuver for you guys was a mistake and I agree. Thank you, Itachi, for doing that for me by the way.” He nodded at that. 

“You stupidly sentimental Konoha shinobi…” Kisame muttered. 

“It’s for more than just sentiment, Kisame. They would have to admit that the village was invaded for someone to carve that or just go along with my story.”

“You used all available chakra you had, and then some more. You really almost were killed in action.” Itachi said. Sakura couldn’t respond to that with a lighthearted quip. He was right.

“Yours is a fearsome jutsu, kunoichi. Use it on me again and I will personally make sure your bounty is correct before I kill you.” Kakuzu snarled from behind her before leaving the room.

“God, had you gotten here ten minutes sooner you would have seen him melt at the samosas, un.” Sakura laughed.

“Yeah I’ll believe that when I see it.” Hidan strode up to Sakura from his couch.

“That was a good jutsu. Glad to see all my hard work paid off for something epic. Lord Jashin likes you.” Sakura’s eyebrow twinged hearing Hidan. 

“What work?! All you did was complain and curse at me!” Hidan grinned.

“Our jutsu is awesome!” He picked up one of Sakura’s hands and high-fived it before leaving the room. Sakura stood there, processing his ridiculousness before grabbing several samosas. As she sat down at the table Itachi and Kisame were playing at, she bit into one of the samosas. Quickly finishing it, she looked up to her partner. 

“That was fucking delicious. This is the most perfect get out of the hospital meal ever. Thanks for cooking it.” They raised both hands so three mouths could beam at her. Both of the mouths on their hands blew raspberries also. Sakura looked back down to the game unfolding in front of her. 

“I’ll play winner.” Both men nodded at her proposition while examining their hands. Sakura continued to stuff her face with expertly cooked samosas before grabbing more. She studied the partners playing. Kisame had an impressive poker face, which she already knew, but she saw it crack whenever he was sure his opponent wouldn’t see. She watched where Itachi was looking, as he had his base sharingan activated to see. He was seemingly careful to keep his eyes on his cards alone, or the board if he was moving. That was reassuring to her, even though she had no inkling that he would cheat given how seriously he resented Kisame’s alleged cheating. It was a very close game, and as Itachi pegged out Deidara joined them at the table to watch the game with a heaping plate of their cooking. 

“Mmm, thanks. I just ran out!” Sakura laughed while grabbing more food. She was seriously starving. Deidara smiled at her while eating their own little pile of samosas.

“Where did that board come from?” They asked the table.

“I took it from the wall over there.” Sakura pointed over to the little tiny shelf that was left over from her machinations. Deidara looked over to where she pointed and back to her with a very excited look on their face. Their eye was lit up.

“You can do art the same way I do! Just... without the mouths, obviously. I can make you explosive clay, un. And then we can take it to the arena and make it go bang!” Sakura smiled.

“Alright. I can try that. But I have to be a bit slow with my chakra for a while so it’ll take me a bit. Sorry about that but direct orders.” All her fellow Akatsuki at the table looked at her questioningly then. Sakura grabbed the deck of cards and started shuffling. Once she was done she dealt to Itachi and herself before explaining.

“Lord Pain ordered me to replenish my chakra stores, which I would have done anyway. Once my chakra production gets back to normal, that alone will use a quarter of my daily chakra, sometimes more if I can. I will resume hospital work and training. I won’t be able to sculpt anything quickly.” They nodded at her words, “And I have to treat Itachi, which we need to discuss soon, please.” She looked at the man sitting to her right, who simply nodded at her request while opening the game.

“You’re also looking weak, Blossom. You should work on some taijutsu too.” She rolled her eyes at the reminder.

“Already made a training regimen for that. Atrophy happens when you’re comatose for three weeks, Kisame. Chakraless spars would be nice help though, from everyone.”

“Of course, un. It sounds like that’s going to be the only way we train for a while.”

“Unfortunately it looks that way, sorry.”

“It is your fault but don’t feel bad about it, un. I’ll go make you some explosive clay!” They were off on a mission.

“Thank you!” She called after them. Kisame grinned at her while Itachi dealt new hands to each of them.

“Your partnership is interesting with them.” The big blue ninja said to her.

“How so?” She was curious how their partnership was interesting to Kisame. 

“Before you joined they had all the reason in the world to hate you. They were kind of depressed even, I think. But you two get along great. It’s entertaining to me.” He shrugged. Sakura grew solemn.

“We’ve talked about Sasori. I carry much guilt over the suffering I’ve spread in the name of Konohagakure.” She focused on her cards. There was a beat of heavy silence around the table while they played. It was a close game and they were nearing the end, but Itachi was currently in the lead by ten or so points.  

“You said you needed to discuss my treatment. We can discuss that while finishing this game.” Itachi offered. Sakura nodded, grateful at the escape from that awkward silence.

“Lord Pain mentioned that the other teams were going to pick up the slack from me having to recuperate so much chakra. I’m sure you only have a fraction of your chakra supply available to you while you are ill. So I would like to perform major surgeries on you to clear your lungs of scar tissue. But there’s not much of a point to doing that without fixing the root cause of your illness.” Sakura paused for a moment to make sure her point so far sunk in. 

“You now have a set of eyes that might help fix most of your illness. But you’ve made comments in the past that make me think you are hesitant about that course of treatment. I can make a sort of patch for the root cause of your illness, with seals instead if you prefer.” Kisame watched their interaction curiously, but mainly Itachi, who was silent while considering her words. Itachi reached into his pouch at his hip and withdrew a scroll. Had Sakura not been watching him so closely she would have missed the small shudder that ran through his body as he held the scroll. He placed it on the table, near the cards of Sakura’s crib. 

“I will do what Lord Pain orders.” Detecting any emotion in Itachi’s voice was already difficult for her, but it seemed like his voice was carefully blank compared to even earlier in their game. 

“Lord Pain is letting me decide your treatment plan. I would like to do whatever you prefer, given the gravity of these.” Sakura laid a hand on the scroll containing Fugaku Uchiha’s eyes. Itachi’s brow furrowed while looking at the scroll, eyes red. Their game of cribbage was forgotten for the moment. 

“The only way I will allow my sharingan to be removed is if you can personally guarantee they will be pristine for when Sasuke comes for them. Because he will, and I need to make it until then.” Itachi said very quietly. Sakura recoiled at the implications of that statement, but proceeded professionally. 

“Of course. I can preserve your sharingan and then seal them away. Only… are you sure you want to use these?” He slowly breathed deeply before answering.

“Yes. Using them will fulfill part of my father’s last request.” Sakura was shocked for just a moment before nodding, and resumed playing their game. She had caught up with a great hand, and it was anyone’s game now.

“Alright. We’ll do the transplant, and most likely a supplemental small-scale seal on top of that to make sure your lungs stay in good shape after all the surgeries.”

“How many surgeries will he need, Blossom?”

“Since I have to be mindful of my chakra, I am going to have to split up each lung into several surgeries. In total, with the sharingan transplant, it will be about seven operations over two weeks.” Kisame whistled at that number.

“Good thing she’s the best medic in the world, right Itachi?” Kisame grinned while laughing at his teammate. 

“Yes. Otherwise I wouldn’t be agreeing to any procedures.” 

“Well thank you for saying that. Also Kisame, I wouldn’t tease Itachi too badly. Soon his being on the verge of death will stop distracting me from checking out the rest of the Akatsuki now that I’m team medic.” She beamed up to the now aghast shark ninja while wiggling her eyebrows. The cribbage game ended then, with Sakura pegging out.

“Finally! It’s about time I won a stinking cribbage game! I’m the one that taught it to you guys!” 

“You just need more practice. Again?” Kisame asked with a wink.

“I’m actually really tired. I’m going to go tell Lord Pain about the treatment plan then I’m going to go to bed. 

“Goodnight, Sakura.”

“Goodnight Itachi, Kisame.” Sakura waved to them before leaving the dining room.

**

The following day saw a new routine fall over the Akatsuki base in Amegakure. Kakuzu and Hidan as well as Itachi and Kisame frequently left the base for weeks at a time on missions. Sakura focused intently on recovering her lost chakra stores as quickly as possible without shirking any of her other responsibilities. If she was lucky, she was able to sculpt several small lines a week into her clay Deidara had given her. They maintained a twice weekly chakraless taijutsu spar sessions. Otherwise, Sakura woke up early enough to run around the city five times before returning to base to do strength training.

Whenever Itachi and Kisame were in the village they made sure to spar with her too and practice what she needed to work on. Kisame had even taken to having periodic katana training with her, but that was more like teaching than anything. They weren’t in the village for very long ever though, and Sakura had her hands full teaching Yori advanced medical ninjutsu. Her covering for Sakura during the month of preparation for her defection and then the three weeks of being comatose had improved her skill considerably. As Sakura had known it would. She was assisting Sakura in any surgeries that came up, and was treating lung patients now. The only area of the body she would not work in was the brain, as she felt uncomfortable with the structure and didn’t want to accidentally kill someone. 

Sakura had taken to walking around the village in disguise throughout random days, to see what the villagers were like and what they might need from the medical system. She was struck again with just how broad the array of people was in Ame. There were people from every corner of the lands in this village. If even a quarter of them were like that family she had overheard when getting teriyaki with Konan, they all had had many hardships and struggles to get here. Getting some sort of mental health system in place would benefit even the civilians, let alone the shinobi that worked in Amegakure. 

She made sure to track Konan down and inquire about any sort of mental health help available to people in Ame. 

“We don’t currently have anything like that.”

“Okay, well I think it would help the civilians and shinobi of the village to have therapists and support available to them if they need it. Living around shinobi can be traumatic for civilians sometimes, and if most of the city is refugees like I think, then they’ve had an even harder time. Let alone the trauma all the shinobi carry around.” Konan was looking at her with a calculating gaze. 

“I helped set something like this up in Konoha. Please help me start finding people qualified for therapy and a building to dedicate as a mental health hospital. Community involvement, education, and social support services can all go in that place together. I really think it would help.”

“We could also make a women’s shelter.” Sakura’s eyes lit up to hear Konan engage with her about this.

“Yes! Thank you so much for getting on board with this!” Sakura was grinning now, and Konan had a polite smile for her in return. 

“I should be the one thanking you for caring about the people of Amegakure enough to suggest this. I am happy you succeeded in your defection, Sakura.” Konan bowed slightly to her, and gestured for Sakura to follow her up to Pain’s office.

“Let’s go tell Lord Pain about how much of a difference you’re gonna make here.” The two women walked off together, with Sakura excitedly talking about her plans for the future with Konan. 

Chapter Text

Tsunade hadn’t noticed the jutsu at first; it was incredibly subtle. Eventually, it had taken all of her concentration and skills to notice a pattern to the jutsu, and even longer to break free of it. Gasping, Tsunade stumbled and looked around her. The Sun was in a different position than she remembered, her forces were standing around looking like zombies, and most importantly, Sakura was gone. The flying Akatsuki were gone. She would bet everything she had that Itachi and his partner were gone as well. She couldn’t fight the desperate screams that ripped through her. She screamed and screamed. Her chakra surged, and she leapt over to Madara’s side and kicked his hand making the Seal of Confrontation, destroying it. As she landed, Tsunade realized there was something tucked into her shirt. Withdrawing it, she saw it was a letter in Sakura’s handwriting. Eyes widening, she tucked it back into her shirt. It was time to wake her comrades now, and she would likely want privacy to read whatever that letter contained. 

Over and over, as she woke people from the jutsu, she saw the moment of realization she had had cross over their faces. As she broke Naruto out from the stunning jutsu, he sprang up, looking around for their adversaries. As he realized no one was around anymore, he looked back to Tsunade, confusion on his face.

“What happened, Granny Tsunade?” She ground her teeth before sighing.

“What do you think happened? They won! And took Sakura with them!” Naruto’s face fell dramatically, and his body language deflated. 

“She’s gone? She really defected?” Tsunade ground her teeth again, clenching her fists. She exhaled slowly before answering.

“That is still to be determined. Let’s go back to Konoha.” The group of shinobi turned back to their village. Kakashi was back to being a despondent version of his already somewhat standoff-ish self. The group had been traveling less than ten minutes before they found the additional ANBU that had come with also standing frozen in a small clearing. Tsunade grimaced. She could never make bets that actually paid out.

Naruto and an ANBU agent went about waking up the stunned shinobi. As soon as they were all ready for travel, they again began their journey to Konoha. 

**

Tsunade had to do some fast talking when she had gotten back, but there wasn’t much anyone could truly do. Jiraiya had covered for her well, and nothing had happened while she was gone. She held Naruto and Kakashi in her office while the rest of the people that had to have a word with her about her sudden disappearance slowly cleared out. 

Finally, they were the only two left in her office. She gestured to the seats across from her desk. Making sure the windows were shut and shuttered so the ANBU stationed outside couldn’t hear in, she removed the letter from her shirt once more. Both men’s eyes were glued to it.

“Is that what I think it is, Granny Tsunade?”

“Yes. I haven’t read it yet. I thought you would want to know about this one last communication.” Hesitantly, she opened the letter and began reading.

Tsunade,

There is no easy way for me to tell you this. I have felt disconnected from Konohagakure for a long time. Ever since Ino died, there was a sour note in the village for me, making me run away, and hide from everyone, everything. There is a taboo about mentioning the dead after a while. The village seemed to live in blissful forgetfulness of the dead it has bought. I had nowhere to go. Team 7 moved on easily without my below-average skills, and I threw myself into my work to stop me from drowning in my isolation. Somehow, you accepted me as your apprentice and I was adequately challenged for several years. 

During my apprenticeship, I did what I do best. Read. You gave me broad access to many things to help you when you got too drunk. I found the original documents about the Will of Fire. It makes us easier to control by having us all think of the village as one big family. It makes us more willing to die. To see those reasons written out for something that is emphasized so vocally throughout the shinobi training made me sick. Made me think of Ino, and how the village did nothing more to remember her than pay her family a stipend because she died. I continued to read, and found Hiruzen’s memoir. He details his regrets about the Uchiha clan, Danzo, and most of all, his failings to keep one of the village’s best assets, Itachi. Interestingly, he details what the Fourth had asked him to do with Naruto and didn’t have regrets about his absolute failings there.    Feeling more conflicted than ever about the village and the Hokage, I went to you. I don’t know if you remember this interaction, as it was extremely early morning hours and you had been drinking all day. I asked you about some of the difficult decisions a Hokage might make. You were justifiably wary of my question. Not wanting to admit that I had perhaps read things I shouldn’t have, I simply asked if the Hokage ever stopped to consider they didn’t have the full story before deciding to risk a shinobi’s entire life. 

“Being Hokage isn’t as straightforward as you think, girl.” I was thinking of massacre, betrayal, and supremely criminal unawareness of the underbelly of the village. Needless to say, I was not satisfied with that answer, and in fact appalled by it. You angrily dismissed me, and gave me menial work at the hospital as punishment for questioning you. I searched long and hard for Itachi’s file after that, and when I finally read it, I cried. I couldn’t believe Hiruzen had allowed anything of the sort to happen. I have to assume the village will continue to make those terrible decisions. It will continue to barter in death, both inside its walls and outside. Shaken by my knowledge, I continued my path as a medical shinobi of the Leaf. I grew as a kunoichi, and helped the village I felt nothing for. I was eventually ready to prove myself to my team again, as an accomplished shinobi.    

Except they had moved on without me. I could never convince Kakashi to meet with me  or spend any time with me outside of necessary healing for him whenever I tried. So I stopped trying. Naruto would try to drag me away from surgery preparations, physical therapy sessions, or hospital scheduling, and then always complain that I was boring and dull whenever I tried to explain. We would always meet for ramen later, but he found he couldn’t bring up Sasuke in front of me, and I couldn’t explain how I felt to him. Eventually, we stopped reaching out to each other. There had been a small part of me that had hoped to impress them, but they already had an unconventional squad that was beyond full. What room was there for someone new to their mission, even though I had always given aid from the sidelines, the hospital. But now I was drowning again, having accomplished all of my medical goals. It was just another way to distract myself, and I felt as if there was nothing left for me to learn. So I turned to combat training once again, and convinced you to send me on the missions you were desperate to accept and only could risk a single agent. I had the skills to convince you.

I saw so much suffering on my travels as an agent of the village. There are many undocumented healing sessions I couldn’t report because I knew I was wasting time on my mission and there would be consequences for that. I couldn’t continue to be stuck inside the village, and I couldn’t not help the people I saw who were suffering on my travels. So much of the suffering I saw was caused by shinobi. Sometimes even Fire shinobi, with no way to fix the damage without giving away cover. My heart wept for the people I saw living in fear of shinobi because of us. My heart broke to hear about the Kojima's family’s story. A vacationing family in Fire doesn’t deserve aid as quickly as Fire citizens? They couldn’t pay immediately so they don’t deserve help? Their daughter had been abducted. It saddens me to think that the great Tsunade Senju could be so narrow-minded about people. We are all people, and we should all be able to work together and respect each other. A vacationing family in peacetime is as good as a representation of our allies at least to me, and we ought to help them. Especially when it is a child abduction. The fact that you didn’t because of money… is not something I can stand by. So, that, coupled with the ability to bargain for the village’s safety in a way that I felt personally validated in doing so, was a no-brainer when given the opportunity.   

If you have ever had any positive feelings towards me at all, including trust, please heed this next sentence:

I, Sakura Haruno, personally bargained with the Akatsuki for both Konohagakure and Sunagakure’s safety. They will not pursue your jinchuuriki anymore. The concern and wariness Konoha has felt regarding Akatsuki for so long may be put to rest. I promise  you I would not have accepted any joining of their group otherwise. I will be on this side, making sure my leader follows his promise to me. You have someone keeping an eye out for trouble on this side. Please let me go. 

Konoha was invaded while you were gone, and my name is carved into the memorial cenotaph. Please understand I will not be coming back. I have done my duty to the village and have given up the life of Sakura Haruno to defend it’s walls and most valuable military asset. I have done everything possible to make sure my defection went smoothly, but if you’re reading this letter, I failed. There should have been zero casualties on your side, as that was a requirement I had when setting everything up. I am sure you noticed my new jutsu I created to ensure just that. I do not know how else to convince you I am telling the truth other than all of Konohagakure’s top shinobi were incapacitated on the field and left alive by one of your highest profile groups of enemies. Please understand me. I’m sorry,   

∽Sakura Haruno

Tsunade finished reading the letter and slammed it on the table. She pushed it to the men across from her. They grabbed it up and started reading. Kakashi wilted throughout the letter, and Naruto grew more and more agitated. 

“I can’t accept this. We are not losing our top medic this way. We’re going to get Sakura back.”