So in 2006 I published my first Naruto fanfiction, a Sakura/Itachi story. It was cheesy, lackluster, cliche, and just all around bad. But it garnered nearly 600 reviews. Now, five years later, I'm back to trying my hand at a Sakura/Itachi story that I've worked endless hours on. I wrote this merely to gauge my growth over the years and I'm rather proud at what I've accomplished.

Note: This story still follows canon Naruto chapters- meaning, Itachi is dead, Naruto can go Nine-tails mode, and Sasuke hates Konoha with a burning passion. This story takes place about five years after the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War. At the time of posting this story, the most recent Naruto chapter is 554, so any events that occur in the Naruto manga after chapter 554 may or may not be included. So I suppose I should say, this story is canon up to chapter 554. If you are not familiar with the current Naruto chapters, then please be warned that I may include spoilers in this story, or reference events that occurred the manga. I rarely watch the Naruto anime, so most information is from the manga.

Hope you enjoy!

Second Chance

Tri17

Chapter One: Life Rebirth Technique

By using chakra to speed up the rebirth of cells, a person can gain a form of "immortality". By applying this same concept to a person who has been killed in battle, it may be possible to revive them by repairing all the old, damaged cells, and replacing them with live cells that are able to reproduce. By applying enough chakra to stimulate the cells into a regular rebirth cycle, these new cells can live without the aid of constant chakra. Eventually, the deceased should be able to revive themselves, assuming everything is healed up and their cells can reproduce and function normally.

However, the problem remains with getting the person to revive. There is a strong possibility that with the lack of oxygen to the brain, there could be lasting brain damage. This can likely be solved by stimulating the cells in the brain to revive and reproduce, making sure each new cell is a "good" cell- as in one without anomalies. The other problem is getting the "soul", per se, of the person back. There are rumors of being able to transfer one's own "life-force" in exchange for a soul; the actual results of such a test are unknown. Most cases, it is considered to be an equal exchange of souls- in essence, a sacrifice of some sort. To work around this sacrificial problem, the healer can transfer their own life-force to try and revive the person.

This jutsu would take considerable amounts of chakra and a long prep period, thus meaning the deceased person could not be allowed to decompose. The prep period would probably take months, as well as storing enough chakra needed. Each cell must be functioning in the person before life-force can be transferred, since the person must be able to revive on their own so that not a large amount of life-force is used. If too much of the healer's life force is used up, the healer will die. There is also a large risk of chakra depletion that goes along with the transferring of life-force energy.

Sakura put down the scroll, rubbing her eyes. She finally had a good idea of how to complete her Life Rebirth Jutsu, something she had been working on for several years. After seeing Chiyo's One's Own Life Reincarnation Jutsu, Sakura always had the idea that revival of a deceased person was possible, without causing the death of the healer. By using her mentor's own Creation Rebirth Technique, Sakura had possibly figured out a way to restore life. It had taken her three years of experimenting and studying the immense amounts of medical jutsus, and mastering Tsunade's Creation Rebirth Technique, but finally Sakura knew she could do it. She had written so many notes and scrolls explaining the concept of her jutsu and she really believed she could accomplish the one thing Tsunade had never been able to.

Sakura rolled up the scroll, closing her eyes. Tsunade was in her fifties, late fifties, and she had never figured out this type of jutsu. Sakura was only twenty-one; barely twenty-one, and yet she thought she had figured out this revival jutsu. But it was all right there. The calculations, the explanations, the healing techniques, the chakra needed; everything was there! She just needed to practice and get better. Sakura was the top medical ninja of her generation, the second best medical ninja in the world, second only to her mentor, Tsunade. And she was only twenty-one! If she could do this, this one little jutsu, she would establish her place in the world; show the world why she was chosen to be Tsunade's student and why she was named the top medical ninja of her generation.

Sakura glanced over at the clock, sighed, and put away her scrolls. She still had to work tomorrow so there was no point in staying up late to try and do this jutsu when she definitely didn't have enough chakra for it. Tomorrow, once she got home, she would make another seal, the Yin Seal that Tsunade had showed her. She already had one on her forehead, deciding to follow in her mentor's footsteps. This next seal, though, would go on her wrist.

Then she would start reviving rats and dogs and more animals. She would succeed in this jutsu. It was her only goal now. It was the only thing keeping her going, now that peace had finally been restored.

When Naruto had fought against Madara, it was the scariest moment in the world. There were several ninjas helping him, of course- Tsunade, Kakashi, Gaara, Killer Bee, Sai, and the other Kages. Sakura wanted to help. She truly did. But she was there, standing beside Hinata, watching the most cataclysmic battle in the entire world, and yet she could do nothing. Oh, she healed the ninjas when they were hurt, but that was all she could do.

The finishing blow, though, was what was engraved in her mind forever. The golden, fiery flaming Naruto thrusting his black, crackling Tailed Beast Rasengan blast into Madara's chest; she felt like Naruto wasn't the only one aiming that blast. For only a split second, she saw the Fourth Hokage standing there with Naruto, his arm outstretched and merged with his, their Rasengan's joined together. Sakura saw a red-haired woman standing beside Naruto, holding tightly onto his shoulders. She saw Jiraiya helping the Fourth Hokage and Naruto, adding his own Rasengan blast to the mix. She saw Nagato and Pain and Konan all behind Naruto, aiding him in their own special way. And for a split second, she could have sworn she saw Itachi Uchiha, his own black, fiery blast merging with Naruto's.

But within a second, those images disappeared and Naruto was left triumphantly standing over Madara's corpse, finally beating him and ending his reign of terror and the Fourth Shinobi World War. It had taken so long.

Of course, there was much more to do and accomplish, but before Naruto could help restore peace, there was one final thing their team, Team 7, had to finish. Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura- they all knew they needed to find and finish Sasuke. He was the last problem that prevented their peace.

When they eventually did find Sasuke, Sakura didn't speak to him. She didn't even acknowledge him. She decided she had failed too many times before and was only going to be here to heal Naruto after the battle was over or during the course of the battle. This was Naruto's battle. Kakashi was there to save Naruto should things turn sour and Sakura was there to heal Naruto.

And she left it at that. The two boys did fight and it was hard, harder fought than when Naruto fought against Madara. The final blow came down to, ironically, Sasuke's Chidori and Naruto's Rasengan. But this time, Sakura didn't run to stop them. She stood her ground and decided that she would either use her hands to heal (if Naruto rose) or kill (should Sasuke rise). This would end here, she decided, and this time, her resolve was pure steel.

That moment felt like eternity. The dust cleared. Two bodies stood, almost embracing each other. Sakura held her breath. Naruto slumped to the ground, Sasuke's hand protruding out his back. Sakura closed her eyes, clenched her fists.

She got ready to move. She would end the fight and this time for good. She took one step. Kakashi put his arm out and stopped her, shaking his head. She opened her eyes and saw Sasuke withdraw his hand from Naruto's back, staring at the blood. Then she saw him cough up blood and slump to the ground. Kakashi withdrew his arm and the two sprinted off to the boys. Kakashi restrained Sasuke and Sakura healed Naruto, healing him with every ounce of chakra in her body.

She could still remember when he opened his blue eyes and grinned at her, giving her a small smile and a thumbs up. "I kept my promise of a lifetime," he told her, and fell unconscious. He was such a fool, Sakura knew, but she smiled, crying, and nodded. They picked Naruto up and Sasuke, who Sakura made sure to put into a heavy sleep, and they returned home, this time, for good.

Sakura walked into the hospital, getting the regular greetings from her staff. Despite being so young, she commanded total respect and awe from every medical ninja- after all, not even Tsunade was as medically advanced as Sakura was at that age. Sakura was the director of the hospital, a gift Tsunade bestowed upon her shortly after Sakura turned nineteen. Shizune helped out occasionally, but she was first and foremost Tsunade's assistant. Sakura wasn't, and so hospital responsibility fell to her shoulders.

"Sakura-sama, we've had three nurses call off today and we're understaffed," her prime assistant began. "Furthermore, we've gotten word that an entire squad of ninjas are on their way back from a bad mission and are critically wounded. What do you want us to do?" It was only 9:00. Too early for crisis, but it was the hospital and it wouldn't be a typical day without at least one thing going wrong.

"Call in Shizune and Ino. They can help with the ninja squad. Distribute the rest of the medical files to the other nurses, and try to remember their capabilities. I'm going to go ahead and try to work through as many as I can until the wounded ninja come in." With that, Sakura took a large stack of patient files and went to work. At exactly 10:16, Sakura got the call that the ninja squad had arrived. She looked at the ninja she was giving a regular check-up to (who just happened to be Neji Hyuuga) and frowned.

"Sorry, Neji-san, but that's my call. I can have another nurse finish the exam or you can come back tomorrow and I'll get to you first thing. It's your choice."

"I'll see you tomorrow," he told her and Sakura nodded, apologizing once more for good measure. Neji shook his head. "I understand. I'm not critically wounded- they are. Go; save their lives. You're needed there; not here." Smiling, she nodded, and rushed out of the room, already pulling on latex gloves and fastening her medical coat tighter. She walked into the emergency room and saw the five ninjas. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes and plunged into the chaos.

The hardest lesson she ever had to learn was death. Sakura had a flawless mortality rating (as in, for every patient that was solely her's, she was able to save; after all, she couldn't account for mistakes other nurses made) for the first six years as a medic. Then, at eighteen, she couldn't save her patient. She tried; kami, she tried so hard. She wasted all her chakra trying to heal him.

When Shizune pulled her away from him, Sakura was in hysterics. Her hands were burnt from the overuse of chakra. She was trembling and sobbing, knowing she couldn't do anything. Shizune told her that she had done everything she possibly could, that sometimes, not everyone could be saved. Sakura shook her head, told Shizune she could have saved him if she had just healed his lungs first. Then she could have stopped him from suffocating on his own blood. But she hadn't. She had worked on the largest wound, the gaping hole in his stomach. If only she would have realized how deadly his lung wound was. She could have saved him. She could have saved him...!

It was Tsunade who broke her out of her hysterics. She was not in the mood to see Sakura break down over one patient.

"Death goes hand-in-hand with life. As an advanced medical kunoichi, you should have realized this by now. You make mistakes. You lose a life. You tried your best, though. You did what you thought was right, Sakura. So snap out of this state because we need you. You're going to kill more patients by feeling sorry for yourself and being depressed. Get over it! If you want to repent for that life, pick yourself up, and heal! Heal with more vigor! Learn from your mistakes and you'll become a much better medical ninja! So stop this crying, go home and take a shower, eat, and sleep, and come back here tomorrow with your head held high and know that you have lives to save!"

Sakura did as she was told. Since then, she had lost three more patients. Two were too far gone to save- she tried to save them, but they were brought to her too late. The other one was partly her fault because she forgot to check for poison and by time she had stabilized him enough, the poison was too far spread. Sakura did everything she could to save him, though. In the same way she did for all her other patients.

Her patient death total, however, was still pending. She had done everything she could for the ninja squad. But the last member- a man only a few years older than her- was so close to death. She had exhausted every muscle in her body. She had used all her chakra. She had done everything she could to stabilize him; truly she had.

Sakura slumped against the wall outside the hospital. She closed her eyes, breathing in the cool night's air. All day she had been working on him; on those other four ninja, too. She hadn't eaten, rested, anything. She had healed and healed and healed some more.

"Hey," someone spoke to her. Sakura glanced up, seeing her long-time rival and best-friend. Ino leaned against the wall, looking up at the moon. "You did everything you could. You saved the other four."

"But the other one died." Sakura felt the swell of disappointment and failure well up in her stomach. She felt like she would be sick. It didn't matter how many years she did this job- she would never lose the feeling after someone died. Even if they weren't her patient; even if she had given responsibility of healing a patient over to another nurse; no matter what, it still hurt. Death always bothered her, especially when the death was ultimately blamed on her and her incompetence. She could always have done something more, at least it felt that way.

"No. Shizune is healing him now. I did all I could but... Well, I can't compare to you or Shizune." Sakura nodded, some relief flooding her body. "Look, you should probably go home for some rest. Or at least crash in the nurses' office and sleep for a little while. Shizune has enough chakra to hopefully stabilize him through the night. Tomorrow, you can heal him some more. He'll make it, okay?" Ino smiled. "But, as a fellow nurse, you need to rest! Your chakra is horribly depleted! You're in no condition to heal anymore!" Sakura nodded, releasing her held breath. The shinobi would live. She had saved his life, at least partially.

"You did really good work today, Ino." Ino shook her head.

"I didn't really do anything. It was you who worked endlessly from each ninja. All I did was stabilize the ninja until you could come over and fix him. You're the true medic, Sakura." Of course Sakura was the true medic. That was all she was good at: medical jutsu. She couldn't remember the last time she had been on an actual, non-medical related mission.

"I'm going to go lay down," Sakura told Ino, finally standing up and going back into the hospital. "I'll relieve Shizune after my chakra returns. Don't let my patient die, Ino."

Sakura could say that she was only a medical ninja, but there wasn't complete truth in that. She still had some other ninja qualities that made her slightly unique besides her advanced medical jutsu, chakra control, and knowledge. For one, she had taken after Tsunade and had nearly mastered Tsunade's chakra-enhanced strength. Tsunade was still better at throwing a chakra punch, but Sakura could easily hold her own against any other ninja. Her fists were always a force to be reckoned with, considering they could easily shatter bones with a simple touch.

Two, she had a rather good genjutsu knowledge. She had decided to hone her abilities as a genjutsu user, except Sakura realized she wasn't very good at making her own genjutsus. But spotting genjutsu- there was no ninja better in the village than her, besides the ninjas with bloodlines that allowed them to see genjutsus. But for a regular, non kekkai-genkai user, Sakura was number one in spotting genjutsus and disabling them. It was something she was good at when she was twelve and she decided to hone that skill much more when she got older.

Third, Sakura was amazing at dodging. She had relatively good speed and stamina—thanks to Tsunade's training. Her flexibility was above par, too. After all, as a medical ninja, Sakura had to be able to dodge attacks and keep herself alive if she were to keep her comrades alive. If the medic died on the team, who would be there to heal the others? That was why Sakura had made sure to keep up her dodging ability and avoidance skill. It was imperative for a medical ninja to have amazing evasive skills.

Fourth, and finally, Sakura could still call herself a kunoichi. She could still seduce and allure men and use her charms to complete a mission, but again, that was something she rarely did- it was more Ino's area to seduce and kill. It was something she was trained in, though, and something she could still say she had accomplished before. After all, every kunoichi had to be a good actress. Their original purpose was to seduce and kill and spy. Sakura couldn't be a good kunoichi without having the traditional skills.

Other than those four things, Sakura was a basic ninja. She was highly intelligent, of course, but she had basic ninjutsu skills (excluding medical related ninjutsu), average chakra levels and slightly poor strength (that wasn't enhanced by chakra). But that was okay. Sakura wasn't meant to fight- she had accepted that fact a long time ago. She was meant to heal and aid others. She could do that by mastering her medical training and by becoming a good genjutsu user (or good in the sense that she could disable the most elaborate genjutsus; Sakura never had been able to cast very elaborate genjutsus or even make her own).

It wasn't Tsunade that had trained her in everything. Everything taijutsu and medically related, Tsunade did train her in. Poisons and such were Shizune's field, though Tsunade helped her along as well. But for genjutsu training, Sakura sought out another naturally good genjutsu user: Kurenai. Kurenai did teach Sakura a little of what she knew and though Sakura didn't train under her long (less than six months), she learned a decent amount, and the rest Sakura figured out on her own. It was these abilities, though, that allowed Sakura to pass the jounin exams when she was eighteen.

She was proud of herself and her abilities. Sure, she wasn't a Naruto, but she was more like a Tsunade, and there was only one of her in the entire world. And one day, Sakura decided, she would surpass Tsunade and become the top medical ninja in the entire world.

"He'll be fine," Sakura told the ninja's team members. "I re-checked and he should be up and around within the week. He just needs plenty of rest and no physical activity for at least two weeks. And then no missions for at least a month. After that, though, bring him back and I'll check to see if he's cleared for missions. He should be released from the hospital in the next two or three days."

"Thank you, Sakura-sama," one of ninjas told her. Sakura smiled and nodded.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to see some other patients," she told them, to which they nodded. It was another person saved but yet, she still had so much left to do and accomplish.

"All right, first up, let's finish up Neji's examination," Sakura told herself, picking up Neji's file and a cup of coffee to help her throughout her day. Sighing, she knew it was going to be a very long day at that.

"Sakura-chan, you should come out with us to celebrate!" Sakura continued to look down at her papers, writing reports and signing things for the hospital. "Come on, Sakura-chan! Let Shizune handle the place for a little while. You've been cooped up here all day!" Sakura finally glanced up at the group surrounding her desk. In front of her was her other best friend, the Hokage-in-training, Naruto. Behind him, reclining in her chair was her other teammate and close friend, Sai. And leaning against her wall, reading his customary book was her first sensei, Kakashi.

"You don't really get out too much, Sakura. A little break every once in awhile won't hurt. After all, we should celebrate that someone is finally taking Naruto off our hands," it was Kakashi that was telling her this. Sakura rubbed her eyes, sighing.

"For Hinata," she finally said. "I haven't spoken to her in a while so it'll be nice to talk to her. What time am I supposed to meet you guys? And where? Please don't tell me Ichiraku Ramen."

"No, we're going to the tea shop next to the Academy instead," Naruto told her frowning. "And be ready around seven, if you can." Sakura nodded. "We'll see you there?"

"Yeah. I'll see you guys there." Naruto grinned and reached across her desk, hugging her. "Ack, Naruto, be careful! Don't mess up my papers!" He laughed, sheepishly rubbing his head.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan!" Keeping his customary grin, he waved to her and jumped out of her office, Kakashi and Sai following behind. In the hallway, Sakura could hear him ask, "Hey, do you think Tsunade-baa-chan will let us take Sasuke-teme out of prison to celebrate with us?"

"Naruto, you're stupid if you think she would," was Sai's reply. Sakura shook her head, returning back to her work.

Sasuke. That was a name that still brought a bitter taste to her mouth. Nearly five years since they had brought him back to the village. Technically, he should have been put to death immediately, but Naruto begged and pleaded with the council to figure something else out with him. Finally, they sealed Sasuke's chakra away and locked Sasuke up in high-security prison. Sakura was the one to disable his Sharingan, which she did almost gladly. She severed all the chakra pathways to his eyes, nearly leaving him blind.

They told Sasuke they were going to give him several years in prison but his sentence might be lessened if he agreed to reinstate himself as a Konoha shinobi and work for the village again. Sasuke refused, spitting at them for the suggestion. Naruto told Sasuke that until he came to terms with his position, Sasuke would be left in the prison cells to rot. He told Sasuke it was a waste of his abilities and a pitiful end to the Uchiha clan. Sasuke became silent after that.

Naruto visited him a lot, Sakura knew. When Naruto wasn't on a mission, it was almost daily. Kakashi had started visiting him, too, over the past few years. At first, Kakashi avoided Sasuke, but after realizing Sasuke had made no attempts to escape from prison, he decided to try and persuade his student to come to terms with the Konoha shinobi.

Sakura had been the one to not go and see him very often. She could count on both hands how many times she had visited him. Nine times in five years. Naruto told Sakura that Sasuke had asked about her, figuring she would be as adamant as Naruto was, and visit him almost every day. Naruto said Sasuke asked about her and what she was up to, to which Naruto replied she was a highly successful medical ninja and she was in charge of the hospital.

When Sakura did finally visit him for the first time, it was only in a group with Naruto and Kakashi. She had remained silent the entire visit. The next few visits were the same, though they were sporadic. When she visited him the first time without Naruto there, it was to ask him only about his eyes. She was wondering if his vision had increased any since the procedure. Sasuke told her it had, though his eyes still burned. Sakura nodded and apologized, though they both knew it was a lie. Sasuke finally asked her why she hadn't been visiting him. Sakura replied honestly, saying she was too busy and she didn't really want to see him. He accepted that.

Sakura had visited Sasuke one more time after that, with Kakashi, about eight months ago. Sasuke had paid her very little mind and Sakura was okay with that, figuring she really didn't want to speak with Sasuke nor see him. Something about the sight of him made her stomach churn and her mouth turn sour. He wasn't someone that Sakura liked, in any sense of the word. It was definitely a sharp contrast to her feelings from five years ago, or even nine years ago.

And Sakura liked that. It finally proved that she had matured and grown up, and gotten over her long-time obsession with Sasuke Uchiha. Sakura didn't need him to be happy. She didn't need his approval, his love, or his friendship. All Sakura needed to be happy was herself. By knowing she was independent and strong, and understanding that her worth wasn't tied to Sasuke or Naruto or even Team Seven, then Sakura was fine.

It had been a long time since Sakura had spent time with a relatively large group of people. She had decided to dress appropriately for the occasion (especially because her medical uniform and her blue top and pants had been covered in blood from one last patient she had seen before she left for the day) so she had ran home to change clothes, thus making her a little late.

"Sakura-chan, you came!" Sakura nodded and smiled, smoothing down her black skirt.

"Sorry, there was one last emergency I had to take care of before I left and it left me a little messy. I had to run home and change and take a shower before I came." Sakura looked at Hinata, who was wearing a beautiful teal top and striking black capris that accentuated her curves. Her hair was pulled up into a bun and she was even wearing make-up and dressy heeled sandals. Sakura had always thought of herself as a rather pretty girl, but standing next to Hinata, she felt oddly inferior.

Comparing herself to Hinata, Sakura looked like crap. Her black skirt was wrinkled and her red top (nothing more than a sleeveless top with the ever typical white circle on it) didn't fit her form that well. Her shoes were her regular shinobi sandals and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She looked like she had just come home from work and thrown something on, which was pretty much true. However, Sakura was first and foremost a medical ninja and her job came before her personal life and her appearance. Still... maybe next time she would spend a little more time on her appearance.

"Please Sakura-san, sit here," Hinata offered, her voice soft and sweet. The entire atmosphere was calming and tranquil, which was something Sakura had to appreciate seeing as how her last few hours had been filled with nothing but pain-filled screams, chaos, and blood.

"Ah, thank you," Sakura replied, snapping out of her thoughts. She was tired and she knew she would rather be at home, working on her revival jutsu instead of eating out with Team Seven and Team Eight, but Sakura decided she needed to support Naruto and Hinata's engagement.

The dinner dragged on with idle chatter and Sakura felt herself in a state of half-awareness. She was tired and though she tried to make nice, light conversation, her mind kept wandering back to her revival jutsu and her nice, soft bed. It was Kakashi who finally took notice to her half-asleep state.

"Sakura, maybe you should go on home. I think you're looking pretty exhausted." Sakura nodded gratefully.

"I am. Today was a long day," she murmured, reaching into her purse to get out the money. Hinata stopped her, shaking her head.

"Please, Sakura-san let me. It's the least I can do to show my thanks for your coming." Sakura smiled and nodded, too tired to decline her offer.

"Maybe you should ask for some time off, Sakura-chan," Naruto suggested, looking worriedly at the dark circles under her eyes. Sakura shook her head and stood up.

"No, I'll be fine. I just need some sleep. Thanks guys and I'll see you around," she told them, somewhat halfheartedly. In truth, she usually only saw her friends in the hospital and very rarely outside of there. She left the tea-shop and walked home slowly, too tired to transport herself home. She was just too tired for anything.

The rat was revived for a total of five seconds before it underwent cardiac arrest. The problem seemed to be in the sudden shock of being dead and then coming alive. A calming chakra will have to be placed over the subject before the actual revival can take place.

Reviving the rat took almost half of total chakra. If a rat is around 1/9 the size of a normal human, then it would take 9x the chakra to heal, meaning at least three seals are needed, all of which must have max chakra stored.

Sakura put down her pen and frowned. It had been a week and her tests were going, well, rather smoothly. Sakura felt proud of her progress and excited. However, she knew she was going to run into a large problem that she really didn't want to face.

She would need someone to test this jutsu out on. She didn't want to steal a body from the morgue nor did she want to experiment on an enemy ninja. She wasn't going to dig up bodies from graves; and whoever she revived, she needed that person to be a rather strong ninja, since that was the type of person she would probably be using her completed jutsu on. Not only that, but the person couldn't be someone who someone else would miss. And they had to be recently killed or at least, their body needed to be preserved and not be allowed to decompose.

It was a large problem and Sakura realized she would have to figure out a solution sooner than later, but she didn't need to completely worry about it until she was at that stage. Which, judging from her success, would be in a month or two.

That sent a tingle of excitement through her body. There was nothing like making a new medical jutsu that could save lives, or in this case, revive them. It was the ultimate medical jutsu, should it work successfully.

"That's another thing I've got to do!" Sakura exclaimed, dropping her pen. She whirled around in her chair, shifting through a pile of papers and notebooks and opening a few scrolls. She frowned; not finding what she needed, and stood up, going over to her large bookshelf of medical books.

That was one amazing thing about Sakura's job- the amount of money she was paid. She had to have one of the highest paying jobs in the village, which was well worth it, since her job was one of the most stressful. Sure, the ANBU had stressful jobs, but she did as well. The ANBU were trained to not care about who they killed or who they saved. It was all a matter of missions and succeeding. Sakura didn't have that option. Her hands were made to heal and give life, not take it. And then there were the decisions she had to make that could result in life or death.

Sakura stopped looking at the books, frowning. She supposed that wasn't a fair judgment of the ANBU. They were surely as human as she was and furthermore, had just as much responsibility and guilt and decision-making as she did. All in all, maybe they were equal. It was jobs of equal importance, and she had to respect that.

Anyways, she thought, returning to her musing about her salary, her house was rather large compared to Naruto's old shabby apartment, or even Kakashi's. Sakura had an actual house a few blocks away from the hospital, and it was a decent sized home with two bedrooms, an office area, a large kitchen, a living room, and a large bathroom. The rooms were spacious and she had enough room outside to possibly add on to her house if she so pleased. The largest room in the house, though, was her office area. It was technically supposed to be some sort of rec-room, as there were steps leading from the kitchen down to it. But spanning across the room were her bookshelves, which lined each wall except one. They were full of medical books and medical jutsu and scrolls of jutsu- like genjutsu scrolls or medical scrolls. And, of course, her medical notes and notebooks about her experiments made up an entire shelf.

Her desk was located right in the center of the room and it was also very long and large, about the size of a dining room table. On her final wall were her filing cabinets that held all the papers and scrolls she had written. Finally, in a room adjoining her office was her experimental room which held all her animals that she tested on, and would be the area where she would finally perform her revival jutsu, since the room held all her medical tools and seals and such.

Sakura finally found the books she was looking for and brought them back to her desk. Most were notebooks that had information on Kabuto Yakushi and Orochimaru, both of who had been successful in reviving the dead. As she read through the books, her fears were brought to light.

Every test subject had lost their own will and mind. Some, like Kabuto's, retained their personality and memories, but only did what Kabuto asked of them. These revived people would be considered "puppets."

What would keep her test subjects from losing their will? Then again, Chiyo had revived Gaara and he had retained all of his will and mind without any adverse side-effects. Sakura tapped her pen against her cheek. If she could infuse her chakra enough just to speed up the cells healing, then it would be no different than what she did to any other patient.

Of course, the iffy part remained with actually getting them alive again. Life force, she repeated in her head. She still didn't understand the basis of that or even how she could access her own and give it to someone.

"What if it's nothing but a farce?" Sakura asked herself out loud. "What if life force is nothing but a special type of chakra? To transfer one's life..." Sakura tapped her fingers against her desk, narrowing her eyes in sharp thought. She had restored the rats with chakra and brought them back to life, but the truth was, they had only been dead for a little over a day. It was possible that she hadn't been using life force as she so thought. After all, humans had souls, and to her knowledge, animals did not. Or at least, humans had stronger souls that would need something in exchange to bring them back to the physical realm.

There were so many complexities to this jutsu. But if Chiyo could do it and Orochimaru and even Kabuto, Sakura knew she could as well, except her revival jutsu would be the best of them all. Her jutsu wouldn't take her life, or any other life, nor would it render the revived without will or personality. No, she would find a way to make it so that her jutsu would be a successful revival jutsu, one without large repercussions.

That had become her only goal now.

XxX

That's the end of Chapter One! This is an introduction chapter, mostly. I'm setting up the plot :) Sorry if it's kind of boring so far. And yes, if you are wondering, Sakura is a workaholic. She throws herself into her work to sort of forget about Sasuke and the war.

To be fair, by the way, I actually wrote this chapter nearly a year ago. I think I wrote it late October or early November. I do have all the chapters for this story plotted out and I know exactly where I'm heading. At the time of posting this chapter, I have twelve chapters written, so maybe I'll update pretty quickly? It all depends on how long it takes me to edit a chapter, haha.

Oh, and if there is any confusion to jutus or names or people or whatever, you can ask in a reivew, or just search it up on Narutopedia. That's where I got a lot of the jutsu names and whatnot. Quite the wonderful Naruto resource site!

Next Chapter:

Sakura finds a dark truth in a dark room that warps all her conceptions of what is right and what is wrong. Everything she had ever known was a lie. Konoha has a dark past and she has just uncovered one of the village's many bloody secrets... She gains a new horror-filled respect for a man she once despised, especially once Sasuke confirms the truth. Yes, Itachi Uchiha was ordered to kill his clan.

Chapter Two: The Dark Room

The plot is building...!

Leave a review to tell me what you think! :D Thanks for reading!

-Tri17