Ugh, another filler chapter. This is what happens when an author tries to follow the Kishimoto timeline. I'm honestly trying to skip over the useless crap that Kishi puts in all of his shit, but there are some things that I can't avoid. Oh well.

Standard Disclaimer Thingy.

The Haruno have always been a cursed clan

Our souls were sold to Hell generations before

Our hearts are devoured by the Blodrhun

The First Lesson teaches blind Loyalty

The Second Lesson teaches Control

But the Third Lesson...

{*~*~*}

How did we get here?
When I used to know you so well.
But how did we get here?

The truth is hiding in your eyes
And it's hanging on your tongue.
Just boiling in my blood.
But you think that I can't see
What kind of monster you are,
If you're human at all.

{*~*~*}

Sakura shot out of the bed, still in her black tights, chest bindings, and fishnet shirt. Two seconds, and she had pulled on her boots and wrapped her scarf around her neck and face. Five seconds, and she had her kunai pouch strapped to her thigh and Blodrhun sheathed at her hip. Glancing out the window, she saw a figure riding atop a white creature floating above the village, as well as a cloud of sand that could only be Gaara's defense.

Neji burst into her room, up and ready for a fight.

"Outside. Now." She ordered, and they were gone with a whisper of wind and leaping across the rooftops.

The Suna village was awake now. She could sense civilian chakra signatures stirring and panicking under their feet as they ran across the village. Living in a ninja village, the civilians knew better than to go outside to investigate the attack, and stayed inside. The shinobi ranks of Suna were surrounding the battle between the Akatsuki member and Gaara, but only an idiot would come between the two powerhouses. Only the ANBU dared to come within range of the Kazekage, taking stances flanking their leader.

Neji and Sakura stopped near a couple of the Suna jounin, craning their necks to watch the aerial battle.

"Deidara of Iwa." Sakura muttered, knowing that only Neji could hear her. "Became S-class just before his defection. The last of his bloodline, age nineteen, earth-type, explosives expert."

Neji gave her a bewildered glance.

"I know people." Sakura explained hurriedly, narrowing her eyes as she remembered something. "Neji, activate your Byakugan. The Akatsuki work in pairs."

Catching onto her implications, Neji followed her orders and scanned the village.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura saw the Akatsuki member drop something. She turned to face it fully and inwardly cursed as a clay-creature fell towards the village. It was no doubt an explosive.

"Brace yourself!" Sakura told Neji, just as the village shook with the force of the explosion.

She spread her feet and fell into a balanced stance. The shock wave pummeled her body, reverberating through her chest and causing her heart to skip a beat. Sakura was forced to close her eyes and cover them with her arm as the wind whipped up debris and sand, the pressure in her ears building up to a headache. She could hear cries of alarm coming from the Suna ninja around her, but she cared little for them. The explosion seemed to last forever, the force of the blast nearly sending her off her feet. Sakura channeled chakra to her soles to latch onto the rooftops, and beside her she sensed Neji do the same.

And then it was over.

At the sound of slithering sand, Sakura looked up and was shocked to see that the village was unharmed. Instead, a large crater of sand was falling away into the streets, apparently absorbing the blast before it had touched the buildings. It was a terrifying display of the Kazekage's power.

"Incredible..." She heard Neji murmur next to her.

Sakura couldn't help but agree. But such a force of sand... Gaara could not simply just let it fall, it would crush the village as surely as the explosion would have. So when the cloud of sand began to pull into the sky and away from the village, Sakura realized what he was doing.

'Idiot. Sacrificing so much for such insignificant lives.' She thought. Civilian casualties were common in shinobi battles. Why was Gaara using up his own strength to protect them, when the Akatsuki were clearly after him? He was playing right into their hands, using up all his chakra like that.

"Neji, to the outer walls." She ordered, her eyes locked onto the man named Deidara.

He glanced at her questioningly.

"Deidara is baiting the Kazekage." Sakura told him as she leapt towards the edges of the village. "He's going to trap him once they're in the desert."

"Are we not going to stop them?" Neji asked as he matched her speed.

Sakura shook her head. "We don't stand a chance against the Akatsuki right now. The best we can do is stay on their trail and call for backup."

She could tell that the Hyuuga did not like her plan, but he was smart enough to see the truth in her words. Neji activated his Byakugan and locked onto the chakra signature of the Iwa missing-nin. Sakura fell back and let him and his Byakugan take the lead, the two shinobi dampening their chakra signatures and falling into a stealth mode.

They reached the outer wall and crouched down on top of it, watching as Gaara used the last of his strength to save the village from his own strength. The Kazekage began to fall out of the sky, hurtling down towards the ground headfirst. The Akatsuki member swooped in on his clay bird and caught Gaara with the tail end, wrapping his body and immobilizing it before speeding off into the sky.

"Follow them." Sakura ordered Neji. "They'll be easier to track with you doujutsu."

"And you?" Neji asked her as she stood and turned to face the village.

"I'll arrange for Suna to call Konoha for backup, and then I'll catch up with you." Sakura glanced back at him. "No matter what they do, don't interfere with anything. You're not allowed to die until I find you."

He almost smirked. "Was that an order?"

"Yes." Sakura tossed over her shoulder as she leapt down from the wall.

The Hyuuga jumped over the wall into the desert, following the distant chakra signature of the man called Deidara. Meanwhile, Sakura ran back to the kage tower, knowing that Gaara's older sister was the de-facto leader of Suna. However the kunoichi was still doing business in Konoha, and so the village was without a leader at the moment and everyone was panicking.

She almost paused when Kankuro's chakra flew by her, no doubt chasing after his brother. Oh well, he'd probably die too, facing off against the Akatsuki alone. People never learn.

Her first destination was the messenger tower. With the village in turmoil, the tower was empty, save for the hawks which lived there. Knowing that it was pointless to ask anyone for permission, Sakura immediately retrieved one of the Konoha messenger hawks and attached a letter to Tsunade on the hawk.

Target was Kazekage.

Akatsuki successful.

In pursuit, need backup.

Won't confront until sure of victory.

With the village scrambling for some semblance of calm, no one noticed one of the hawks fly off into the night.

Sakura returned to the village wall, taking off into the desert on the trail of her partner. She could sense both of the Akatsuki memebers a couple miles ahead of her, with the chakra signature of Kankuro closing in on them. Gaara's chakra was dangerously low, just barely enough to keep him alive. She could not sense Neji , if she had, she would have been severely disappointed in his stealth skills. Sakura immediately hid her chakra as she closed in on them.

The Akatuski pair split up, one falling behind to meet Kankuro, the other (presumably the Iwa nin) continued on with Gaara's body. The Hyuuga had hid himself so well that she would have never found Neji if it weren't for her enhanced Blodrhun senses. His chakra was completely undetectable, she only found him due to hearing his heartbeat through her Blodrhun.

She snuck up beside him, the two of them laying flat across a sand dune and watching the battle commence between Kankuro and the Akatsuki member. Neji barely flinched when she arrived, merely scooting over to make room for her.

"I'll continue after the Kazekage." He whispered to her.

"Why do I have to stay behind?" Sakura hissed.

He gave her a 'duh' look. "You're a medic. And there's no way Kankuro is going to win that fight. He'll need healing after this battle, if he lives through it."

She really didn't care whether the young puppet master lived or died, but she supposed allowing him to die would be bad for Konoha-Suna relations. Not to mention it would blow her cover. Ugh, why did the Original have to be so kind? Her previous reputation was inhibiting her ruthless habits.

"Fine." Sakura muttered. "Go one without me. And don't get caught."

"I won't." Neji said confidently as he slipped away.

She refocused on the battle in front of her and was surprised to see that Kankuro was dealing with yet another puppet master. Due to her clan's sensitivity to chakra, she could see the glimmer of their chakra strings even from her position. The smell of poison was in the air, and her Blodrhun hummed at its flavor, the weapon awakening upon sensing battle and death.

The sweet smell and poison and decay.. It's taint slithered into her mind. Sakura did not bother to push it away, allowing the darkness to linger in her head.

Morning broke through the night sky, and their battle waged on. It was a rather boring battle, really. Sakura dared not come any closer to the battle, as there were not many places for her to hide in the open desert. And with the sun rising, she could not risk blowing her cover by moving. Even the slightest movement could cause the entire sand dune to shift, revealing herself to the Akatsuki member. And so she watched from a distance, simmering with frustration as her impatience grew.

It appeared that Kankuro did not realize that the creature that he was fighting was merely another puppet. And the boy called himself a puppet master! The Akatsuki puppet trashed the boy with relative ease, hitting every weakness in Kankuro's puppets without any effort. Like a Hyuuga with pressure points, the Akatsuki member targeted the joints in the puppets and they fell apart with ease. Kankuro was a fool to not realize that the enemy that he was facing was clearly familiar with the design of his puppets.

The battle ended quickly, with the Sabaku boy falling face-first into the sand, paralyzed by poison.

Still, Sakura dared not move. As long as the Akatsuki member was within the area, she would not reveal her position. And since he moved so slowly, it would clearly take a while. Only after she had waited for two hours did she dare stand and make her way over to Kankuro's body.

Her back ached from lying still for so long, her neck ached from watching the fight, and she could feel the beginnings of a sunburn on her everywhere.

Therefore, Sakura was not gentle as she effortlessly picked up the Sabaku boy and through his body over her shoulder. She left the fallen puppets where they were and began the trek back to Suna.

"It's the Leaf nin!" One of the guards at the gate cried as she approached.

Unsurprisingly, the Suna shinobi became immediately guarded. She was forced to wait at the entrance to the village while someone was sent to fetch Baki, the once-sensei to the Sabaku kids. Sakura found it highly ironic that they did not even take Kankuro from her, even though he was injured.

"Why do you have my student slung over your shoulder?"

Sakura turned to face the older Suna jounin, noting his tanned skin and tattooed cheeks. From the Original's memories, it seemed that he had barely aged over the years.

"I'm rather disappointed in your men, Baki-san. Kankuro is clearly injured from his fight with the Akatuski, and yet they hinder my progress into the village due to suspicion." Sakura chastised.

Baki sent a glare at the gate guards, who cowered before him. One of the stronger looking men stepped forward.

"I'll, uh," the man stammered, glancing between Sakura and Baki, "I'll take him to the hospital."

Without further prompting, Sakura dumped Kankuro's body into his arms. The man grunted in surprise, perhaps not expecting the boy to weigh so much since Sakura had made it look so easy. She turned back to Baki.

"So, given my reception, I assume you Suna-nin think that my partner and I had something to do with the attack." Sakura gave Baki an unamused look.

Baki did not reply, instead turned to the guards and nodded his chin. Sakura gasped as she felt chains appear around her body, pining her arms and legs together. She fell on her side, hitting the ground hard. She felt the chains begin to suck out her chakra.

"What the hell?!" She snarled. "Let me go you idiots! You can't heal Kankuro without - mfffffh!"

They stuffed a rag into her mouth and someone threw her over their shoulder.

"You are charged with aiding and abetting in the kidnapping of the Kazekage by the terrorist group known as Akatsuki," Baki began in a monotone voice, fearlessly meeting her angry glare. "The council has ordered the arrest of the Konoha shinobi Haruno Sakura and Hyuuga Neji for further questioning."

Sakura screamed in her throat around the rag in her mouth. The Blodrhun shrilled in her head, and she wanted so badly to give into her instincts - kill them! Wretched, pathetic weaklings, how dare you touch a daughter of Haruno?! Burn! Scream! Drink from their blood - her sight was washed out by red and anger. But Sakura knew better. She could easily break free of their chains, if she just gave into the Blodrhun, but then she knew that she would end up killing these men in her bloodlust. Killing any of the Suna ninja, no matter how frustrating, would damage her position in Konoha.

So she nearly lost control of her darkness as they threw her into a cage in the lower levels of one of their buildings, presumably Torture and Interrogation. Most infuriating of all, they did not even untie her, dropping her onto the cot within the cell, the chain pressing uncomfortably into her sides as they closed the door and the light flickered out.

{*~*~*}

A day passed, and she seethed in her anger, still left in an ungraceful heap in a prison cell, no chakra and no food. All the while she struggled against the raging of her Blodrhun -

Just give in

Kill them all

Raze this village to the ground

Show them the folly of their disrespect

Feast on their hearts...

Sakura closed her eyes and breathed in sharply, pushing away the taint. Not now. She couldn't lose control now. The monster within was alive and raging, but she was patient.

Through the tiny slit in the wall that was a sad excuse for a window, Sakura could see the sun setting on her second day in the cell. Her ears perked up as she heard the jangle of keys outside of her cell, and the door swung open to reveal Baki. It seemed Suna finally remembered her amongst all the chaos.

It hurt to lift her head, having gained a kink in her neck from the awkward way her chained body lay atop of the cell cot. Still, she pushed through the uncomfortable feeling and glared at the Suna jounin. He seemed unmoved by the hatred in her eyes and moved forward, yanking the rag from her mouth without emotion.

"Finally remembered me, huh?" She spat as she coughed up the nasty, gritty feeling that the gag had left on her tongue.

He didn't so much as blink at her words. "This is your interrogation, Haruno Sakura."

She remained silent, glaring.

"You two show up the day before the attack, and disappear immediately afterwards. What else would we think?" His voice was harsh, eyes accusing.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Actually, the Hokage sent us to warn Gaara of an Akatsuki attack. We just did not realize that it would happen so soon." Sakura lowered her voiced into a growl, "We thought we'd at least have a day or two to prepare. I don't like surprises."

"And what of you partner?" Baki continued to interrogate.

"He's tracking you precious kage, you ungrateful prude." Sakura snapped, the darkness in her head pressing against her mind. She struggled to resist the urge to rip his head off. "Neji and I went after the Akatsuki, but Kankuro had to go and get his stupid ass whooped. So instead of saving Gaara, I'm left dragging a poisoned Kankuro back to your village because I figured it would be bad diplomacy if I let him die."

Baki finally relaxed his tense shoulders, eyeing her as she bristled. He probably figured that it was not smart to antagonize the Godaime's apprentice any further than they already had - her temper seemed just as bad as Tsunade's (if not worse, judging from the killer intent in the air). Although she was already pissed off enough that she would have gladly cut him open and pulled out each of his innards.

"Can you let me go now?" She snapped.

"I don't have permission from the council for that."

Sakura clenched her hand to hide the claws that were forming, poking into her palms and pricking blood. "Your council can go fuck themselves!"

"I'll be sure to tell 'em that." Baki muttered as he turned and left, the door slamming shut behind him.

She heard the jangle of keys and the lock slide in place. Sakura screamed in anger.

{*~*~*}

Sunlight peaked through the window.

The third day.

"Are you all completely out of your fuckin' minds?!" A sharp, female voice echoed down the hallways. It sounded familiar. "Let her out! You pathetic excuse for a shinobi!"

She heard someone running down the hall and the jangle of keys and shaky hands unlocked her cell door. The light nearly blinded her, and Sakura hissed, squeezing her eyes shut and burying her face into the nasty cot below her.

"Sakura! Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Someone rushed into the cell and began to take off the chakra chains that encircled her body.

Carefully peeling her eyes open, Sakura recognized the sandy blonde hair before her. "T-Temari..." Her voice was dry from lack of food or water.

"Sakura, I'm so, so sorry!" Temari helped her sit up, draping the pinkette's arm over her shoulder and helping her stand. "I swear I'm gonna rip Baki to pieces and beat him with his own sorry leg for this!"

The next couple minutes were a blur as Temari gathered Sakura into her arms and transported to the hospital. The Suna kunoichi was a broken record of apologies as Sakura was assigned a hospital bed and given an IV drip. Two and a half days without food or water was not the worst that she had ever suffered when it came to starvation, but the IV would help her recover faster. A plate of vegetables somehow appeared in her lap, most likely one of the nurses.

Just as Sakura tentatively began to eat, the door busted open.

"SAKURA-CHAAAAAA -OW! OW! TEMARI -OW!"

She had braced for the annoying blonde to glomp her, but thankfully the Suna shinobi had intercepted him before he could launch himself onto the hospital bed. Just as Naruto had flown into the room, Temari had slammed her fan between him and Sakura. Naruto had faceplanted into the fan, and now Temari was holding him by the scruff of his collar and shaking him like a naughty dog. The Kyuubi brat was starting to turn blue from her chokehold.

"You idiot!" Temari growled. "Can't you see she's in a hospital bed? You can't just jump her!"

"Eheheh... sorry Temari..." Naruto wheezed, his collar digging into his jugular from the way that she held his shirt. "T-Tem... Can't... Breathe..."

Temari dropped him onto the floor. Of course, Naruto immediately recovered and popped back up, zooming over to Sakura's bedside.

"Oh my god Sakura-chan!" He practically screamed, making her wince. "Why the hell did Suna throw you into prison? Who did this? I swear I'll -"

"Naruto." Sakura turned and pinned him with a piercing stare. "Shut up."

The jinchuriki was frozen for a moment. His teammate's voice was so cold, so dark. She had never been this way before.

Sakura relaxed her features. "Just listen for a moment, Naruto. It was all a misunderstanding." She scowled. "Not that I'm ready to forgive the Suna council anytime soon."

Naruto sighed. He must have imagined her frigidness earlier. She was probably still angry about being imprisoned for no reason. Sakura was the sweetest girl he knew! She was just in a bad mood, that's all!

"Again, Sakura," Temari took her hand in her own and patted it. "I swear the council will not be easily excused for this. But please, we need you help."

Sakura glanced at the Suna kunoichi, her expression blank and uncaring for a second, before it melted away and the pinkette lifted her eyebrows. "What do you need?"

"My brother." Temari's voice cracked. "He's dying. It's the poison and -" Temari blinked the wetness from her eyes. "-I don't think he'll last another day."

Sakura huffed in annoyance. "That's what I was trying to tell Baki before that bastard locked me up!"

"Huh?" Naruto and Temari stared at her.

The pinkette crossed her arms, anger flaring in her eyes. "I was the one who brought Kankuro in! I was telling them that he was poisoned, and suddenly I'm chained and thrown into prison!"

Temari looked murderous. Helping Sakura out of the hospital bed, she guided the medic and Naruto into the room where Kankuro was being treated. The attending doctors all looked harried and desperate. One glance at his charts, and Sakura knew that Kankuro was in a bad position.

"He doesn't have long." She murmured into Temari's ear, just as Kankuro took a ragged breath and coughed up a mixture of blood and black goo.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura watched as two of the Suna council members entered the room. They froze at the sight of her.

"What is she doing out of her cell?" The man demanded. "She is charged with - ggguuuh!"

Temari had slammed the older man against the wall, her hand around his neck. Her body trembled with anger and she restrained herself from killing the elder. Everyone in the room except Sakura gasped at her display of violence. The lady - Chiyo, Sakura remembered, once Tsunade's rival - looked torn between helping the councilman and waiting to hear Temari's reason.

"You fool!" Temari snarled, her nails digging into the man's neck. "My brother is dying! My other brother nearly dead! And you locked up the only person who could help us!"

"Temari!" The councilwoman snapped. "Let my brother go!"

Temari was still for a moment, before she stepped back and let the old man fall to his knees. Chiyo rushed over to her brother and helped him up. Before she could open her mouth to rant at the younger kunoichi, Temari beat her to it.

"If you ever endanger my brother's life again," Temari growled, "I will end you. Now get out of my sight."

The council members looked like they were about to protest, but with a wave of her hand, Temari had ordered several Suna chunin to escort them out before she decided to kill them.

"You know," Sakura chuckled weakly, "If they had asked me to heal Kankuro, I probably would have said 'no' simply out of spite." She glanced at Temari. "But since you're a friend, I'll help you out."

Sakura felt her legs wobble, still weak from her lack of food. A second later she felt an arm around her waist, holding her up. Naruto looked down at her with a smile.

"I'm finally taller than you, neh, Sakura-chan!" He grinned.

She forced herself to smile back. "Save the reunion for later, Naruto. I have to save Kankuro."

Pulling away from his hold, Sakura walked over to Kankuro's bed. He was feverish; she didn't need a thermometer to see that. She check his eyes and mouth, noting how dilated his pupils were and the dryness of his mouth.

"Get me a pot of distilled water and begin bringing it to boil." She ordered the nearest medic. Turning to another medic, she continued to list orders. "I need to borrow one of your poison laboratories. Bring me a list every plant that you keep in the greenhouses. Herb or poisonous, I need both. Someone bring me a scalpel! And you! Get over here. I need you to pack as much ice as you can on top of Kankuro. We need to get his body temperature down as soon as possible."

Idly she noticed Kakashi, along with another Konoha ninja that she was unfamiliar with, enter the room. Kakashi spoke lowly with Naruto, but with her hearing, she eavesdropped anyway. Kakashi and his friend had apparently run into the council members on the way out and were asking what the big fuss was about. Naruto quickly explained that the council had imprisoned Sakura for the attack on Gaara, and that Temari was seriously pissed off about it.

Kakashi whipped his head up and stared at his estranged student. Sakura refused to look at him, however, pretending that she was absorbed in her work on Kankuro. She had been hoping to avoid coming into close contact with her old team - not her team, the Original's team, these were strangers to her - so that they would not notice her change in Minds.

Soon one of the nurses scurried in with the bowl of water and another empty one for the waste.

"Temari," Sakura called the Sabaku girl over. "I need you and the other ninja to hold Kankuro down. This is gonna hurt, and he will thrash around. I can't have him moving while I do this."

Temari positioned herself over Kankuro's head, holding him down by the shoulders, while several Suna nin joined them, each taking a hold of one of Kankuro's limbs. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, Sakura held up a glob of water and hovered it over Kankuro's chest.

"Here we go." She warned the Suna nin, just before pushing the water into Kankuro.

The young man thrashed, as expected, and his voice cried out in unconscious pain. Sakura pushed harder, aware of every particle of water as she maneuvered them through the pores of his skin. His body resisted the foreign chakra and the foreign liquid. It was like some sick form of osmosis, but she persisted. When her water particles encountered the poison, they surrounded and engulfed the darker particles, separating it from his bloodstream.

If Kankuro had felt pain when the water had gone in, he was in for hell when she dragged the water out. Pulling the water particles back through his pores was harder, as she had to make sure that the water did not drop the poison back into his body fluids. His skin turned red and irritated, and Kankuro screamed as Sakura pulled away, the black globs of poison floating in the middle of the orb of water.

Dropping the used water into a spare bowl, Sakura turned to one of the medics. "Take this and isolate the poison from the water. Begin running chemical tests on its make-up, but do not, I repeat, do not begin tampering with it. I will create the antidote myself. We can't afford anyone fucking this up."

Sakura turned back to Temari. "You good?"

Temari nodded, her breath slightly labored.

"Good, 'cause we aren't done." Sakura told her. "Someone get me some more of this water. Distilled and boiled! I don't need any unnecessary germs. Move it!"

Using the second half of the bowl filled with the distilled water, Sakura began to repeat the process with Kankuro. Sometime during the second procedure, a nurse had replaced her bowl with another one filled with distilled and freshly boiled water. Kankuro's body began to fight back less fervently than before, but that was not necessarily a good sign. He was weakening, but thankfully, there was little poison left to take advantage of that.

It seemed forever, but in less than two hours they were done. The procedure had been repeated two more times, using up two and a half bowls of water, but it was done. Now only the smallest particles of poison remained in his body, no doubt hidden in the most vulnerable parts of his body that Sakura dared not use the extraction process upon.

Everyone was shaking from the effort of keeping Kankuro still. Temari leaned against the wall and slid down it, sitting on her butt and letting the back of her head hit the wall. Sakura nearly collapsed afterwards, now weakened by both her imprisonment and the surgery. Naruto caught her, but his words were garbled in her ears as she slid into darkness.

She wasn't unconscious, however. Like a meditative state, she was aware of the world around her as she felt herself gathered into someone's arms and carried to a bed. Though she could hear voices, she could not make out the words. Sakura wanted so badly to slip into sleep, but she knew that she couldn't. Just a rest. Just a little rest and she could get back up. She couldn't fall asleep yet, she needed to make the antidote. Just ten minutes.

As if she had an internal alarm clock, Sakura's eyes shot open ten minutes later. She was alone in the room, save for Kankuro sleeping in the hospital bed next to her. The lights were out, but she could hear movement out in the hallway. No doubt people were expecting her to rest.

Tossing the blankets off of herself, Sakura jumped out of bed, already feeling better. Since her imprisonment, no one had bothered to take away her weapons, as the chains had paralyzed her. Still, it was a relief that her Blodrhun had been by her side through it all.

Sakura skimmed her fingers over the handle of the Blodrhun, feeling the familiar pain zip up her arm and filling her with life.

Rejuvenated, Sakura exited the room. The hallway was mostly empty, save for the bustling nurses. No one noticed her as she headed towards where she knew the labs were located. Entering a lab that had a reserved sign on it, Sakura was pleased to see that she had guessed right, it was the one with her materials inside it.

She entered the lab and donned the coat that hung by the door. The machines whirred to life as she began to set up for her experiments. The results of the preliminary tests on the poison were sitting next to the samples. Sakura picked it up and scanned it, a smirk on her face. The poison was not nearly as complex as what the Harunos liked to use.

Not surprisingly, Sakura soon became lost in the research. Her mind was working overtime, connecting molecules and weighing theories, measuring compatibility, testing for positives and negatives. She couldn't move fast enough, her mind thinking faster than her body could act, fingers twitching, scribbling down her notes in nearly indecipherable handwriting.

"Oh!"

She didn't look up when she heard a nurse enter the room, instead she continued her research.

"Hey, you were supposed to be resting." The nurse chided her as she stepped into the room. "Your friends have been looking for you -"

Sakura whirled around and pushed a list into the nurse's hands. "Go to the greenhouses and retrieve these ingredients for me."

the nurse gaped in surprise and then protested. "Wait! You need to -" Sakura turned and silenced her with a glare. The air turned cold and the woman swore that she couldn't breathe.

"Do as I say!" Sakura hissed, allowing her darkness to creep into her voice.

The nurse let out a terrified 'eep!' and stumbled out of the lab.

Sakura turned back to her work and lost herself in the numbers once more. Another couple minutes past, before she heard the sound of footsteps approaching the laboratory. She recognized one pair of footsteps as the nurse, but the woman sounded like she was accompanied by two more people. Oh, make that three. Sakura rolled her eyes. Why couldn't people just leave her alone?

"I have what you asked for, medic-san." The nurse squeaked as she entered the room.

Sakura did not look up from her microscope, but recognized the chakra signatures that had followed the nurse into the room. Naruto, Kakashi, and the other guy from Konoha. Still focused on the picture presented to her beneath the microscope, Sakura absently pointed to an empty desk for the woman to put all of the ingredients that Sakura had ordered. The nurse scrambled out the door as fast as she could.

Of course, Naruto was the first to open his mouth. "Sakura-cha-"

"Don't talk, Naruto." She ordered coldly.

He froze.

"If you break my concentration now, I might not finish this." She said distractedly, skipping over to a foul-smelling brew that simmered above a bunsen-burner. Sakura took a sniff of it, stirring it with a glass rod, and then adjusted the temperature.

"Oh." Naruto said dejectedly. "Um, sorry."

Her lack of an answer probably hurt him more than words. Four years since he had last seen his teammate, and now they were practically strangers. Even Kakashi had been unable to tell him about how Sakura had changed over the years, the jounin reluctantly admitting that he had not spoken to his female student the entire time.

Sakura muttered medical jargon under her breath, whirling around and skipping over to the ingredients table. Her arms shot out and confidently picked out leaves and roots, hurrying back to the lab table and beginning to grind the roots. She tossed a leaf into the pot above the bunsen burning, seemingly at random, however when a reddish colored smoke erupted from the concoction, Sakura made an excited noise in the back of her throat.

"That's it!" She hissed, grabbing her notebook and writing something down. She paused and stared at them as if surprised that they were there. "What are you guys doing here? Get out! I can't concentrate with you guys boring holes in my back!"

A little bewildered at this stranger with his teammate's face, Naruto backed out of the room with Kakashi and the other kid. Sakura paused when she heard them talking about her outside in the hallway.

"...wrong with her..."

"People change, Naruto..."

"...-ver been this way, she's not..."

And then a voice she did not know.

"She's rather like me."

"Shut up Sai! Sakura is way better than you!"

"...-er your voice, Nar -"

Sakura frowned. Damn, she forgot how well Naruto knew the Original. She's have to do some damage control later. She couldn't afford to loose her teammates' trust, no matter how much she hated them. She had always told the Original that she was better off without that asshole of a sensei, but the girl had always been so damn sentimental.

One of the machines dinged.

Sakura smirked. "Looks like we have ourselves an antidote!"

{*~*~*}

With Kankuro out of danger, Temari was itching to go after her other brother. And while the council protested that it was too dangerous for her, they seemed to be shocked into silence when Kankuro held up his prize.

"Ehhhh? What's that? A scorpion?" Naruto peered at the torn piece of cloth that Kankuro had swiped from the Akatsuki member that he had fought.

A noticable tick appeared on the elder Chiyo's face. Sakura peered closely at the woman. That lady knew something, and obviously it had to do with the red scorpion figure. Did she have a past with that particular criminal?

Kakashi gave the piece of cloth a sniff. "It seems luck is on our side. I can track them with this."

Sakura stepped forward into the meeting, speaking for the first time since Kankuro had awoken.

"Actually, you shouldn't have to."

They all looked at her.

"I sent Neji after them. His orders were to track but not to engage." She informed the group. "I can lead us to Neji, and he will lead us to the Akatsuki."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Naruto's outbursts were seriously wearing on her nerves. "You came with Neji?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "This wasn't a solo mission. Neji was my partner," She cut a scathing look at the council members, "Before my impromptu imprisonment."

"And why were you giving the orders?" Kakashi asked her, speaking directly to her for the first time in years. "I thought he was the jounin on this mission."

Sakura smiled sweetly at him. Oh she was going to enjoy this. "Because I am the captian for this mission." She suppressed a smirk. "Oh, and I'm also a jounin."

"WHAAAAAT?" Naruto stared at her. "You mean you're two ranks above me?! It's worse than I thought!"

Temari smacked Naruto's loud mouth into the floor. "That doesn't matter right now!" She snarled. "Gaara needs our help!"

Temari pointed at herself, Sakura, and Baki. "We are Team One."

Sakura and Baki glared at each other.

"Naruto, Kakashi, Sam -"

"His name is Sai."

"- you guys are Team Two." Temari glanced around, ignoring Kakashi's correction. "We head out in ten minutes, so get what you need or leave it behind."

Somehow, Sakura was unsurprised that the elder lady, Chiyo, stepped forward. The woman was obviously involved with at least one member of the Akatsuki.

"I'm coming." Chiyo said confidently, despite the elderly croak in her voice.

The room was filled with a dull roar and all of the Suna shinobi began to protest. However old people were a stubborn breed, and Chiyo was no exception. Even when her brother tried to reason with her, she would not be swayed. The glint in her eyes, a mixture of bittersweet determination and regret, was all Sakura needed to know. This was personal to the old woman.

And so they were off, running across the desert despite the punishing heat of the desert sun. Sakura was forced to carry the old woman, both because of her super strength and endurance. Honestly, if she wasn't undercover with Konoha, she probably (and gladly) would have dropped the old lady into the sand and let her rot in the desert. Sadly, this wasn't an option.

As they ran, Kakashi informed them that there was one more Konoha team on the way, the remnants of Team Gai, who wanted to 'rescue' their Hyuuga teammate. Sakura doubted that Neji had ever needed rescue, but whatever floats the Gai/Lee loveboat. Ugh, bad mental image there.

Their first encounter with the Akatsuki was not even the same pair that they were after. Sakura frowned as they neared the two foreboding chakra signatures. And then she recognized them.

'Shit shit shit!' Sakura faltered in her steps, Chiyo glancing curiously at her. 'That's the pair that Mika and I fought! The Uchiha and the Swordsman!'

"We have enemies up ahead!" Temari called back from her position at the front of the group.

"They are a distraction." Sakura told her. "Those aren't the guys that took Gaara. Whatever they're doing to your brother, these guys are here to make sure that they finish it."

At the mention of her brother, Temari growled. "Then we won't fall for their little trick." She raised her voice as she looked over to Kakashi. "Team Two, you guys are going to fight against these decoys. My team will continue on to find Gaara."

"They have to be close by..." Sakura murmured to Temari. "Do you know of any sort of natural shelter around here? Something that could double as a hideout?"

Temari nodded.

"But I wanna save Gaara!" Naruto whined.

'I'll be so glad when I get to rip his heart out.' She thought darkly, the taint in her mind agreeing whole-heartedly. "Naruto, that's Uchiha Itachi ahead of us."

The Kyuubi container froze, and she could see his emotions clouding his judgement. Good, he was falling for it. Before Kakashi could stop him, Naruto was tearing off towards the two chakra signatures. Their old sensei cursed and yelled at Sai to follow him.

No one even thought to ask how Sakura already knew Itachi's chakra signature.

"Let's go." Temari said darkly, adjusting their course so that they ran around the other Akatsuki pair.

Sakura ignored the spike in Naruto's chakra as she, Baki, and Chiyo followed Temari towards a canyon. Sakura had not know that there were canyons in the Suna desert. Temari, however, was clearly familiar with the area, which wasn't surprising considering that she was a native.

"There's a series of caverns that run through these canyons." Temari said as they paused at the edge of a cliff. "They are mostly likely using the largest one." She pointed off into the distance. "That one."

Sakura closed her eyes and spread her senses, using her skills as a sensor to feel out the area.

The darkness that she felt coming from the cave nearly choked her. She felt ten chakra signatures, but only two of them were... all there. It was hard to describe, but it was if... Ah that was it. They were astral projections, in which they somehow were able to send their chakra across long distances. There was a sucking sensation too, making Sakura hesitant to allow her chakra to touch it.

"They are..." She furrowed her brow, eyes closed. "They are sucking out Gaara's chakra. But why?"

It was Baki's turn to offer an explanation. "If they deprive Gaara of all of his chakra, then the Tanuki will emerge."

"The One-Tails?!" Temari asked sharply.

"But there is no where for the demon to go." Sakura tilted her head. "They aren't trying to create a new jinchuriki; I didn't sense a potential host. And without a host, the bijuu will disappear in the earth."

"It doesn't matter." Temari growled. "Separating the demon from my brother will kill him. And I will not let that happen."

"Then it's a good thing that I'm rather skilled at breaking down doors, neh?" Sakura said as she gathered Chiyo into her arms and jumped down into the canyon below.

Just as they touched down into the winding canyon, another chakra revealed itself to them. Sakura set Chiyo down and let her stand on her own, as the pinkette stepped forward to meet the chakra signature. It was strong but it was soothing, flowing steadily like a river. Sakura looked up with a smirk just as Neji stepped out of the shadows.

"Ah, good." Sakura teased, "You didn't die."

"Just following orders." The Hyuuga replied dryly.

Sakura glanced at the Suna shinobi that had accompanied her. "I present to you the esteemed Hyuuga Neji. The man unfortunate enough to be assigned my partner."

"I remember him." Temari nodded in greeting.

Neji returned his gaze to Sakura, raising his eyebrows. "You're late."

Sakura scowled. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Neji shrugged and turned to towards a large cliff face that seemed to stretch into the sky. "I tracked the Akatsuki here. They used an earth ninjutsu to block the entrance, but behind this wall there is a large cavern. We can't just break in, however, as they have booby-trapped the entrance."

The rest of the group gave a unanimous groan of frustration.

"Any idea how to get past it?" Baki asked him.

Neji nodded, activating his Byakugan and glancing at something that no one else could see. "It's a four-part seal, most likely one that can only be broken when each branch is broken at the same time."

"And if those are booby-trapped as well?" Temari crossed her arms. "We need someone that can jump into the cavern the moment it opens. We don't have enough people for this if the situation goes south."

"And that's why we have back up." Sakura resisted the urge to grin as three more chakra signatures came into range, two of them racing ahead with blinding speed.

Neji paled. "No..." He looked over at his partner in panic. "Please no..."

Sakura held up her hands. "I didn't request them; Tsunade sent them."

"THE GLORIOUS CAVALRY OF IMPOSSIBLY HANDSOME AND MIGHTY HEROES HAS ARRIVED TO RESCUE OUR PRECIOUS COMRADE!" *insert random sunset!*

Neji glared at the Sakura. "Fuck."

Sakura's imprisonment was another technique to keep the timeline on track. I mean, I already fucked up the timeline, but I at least try to keep certain series of events in order.

I try, dammit!

Anyway, I'm excited for the next chapter! Can you guess why?

~Sasori-kuuuuun I lurve you so muuuuuch!~~

I love. LOVE. Sasori.

The fight scene will be EPIC.

To battle!

~Lilithia