The End

Naruto cocked his head to the side as he watched the tears run down Sai's face. "You okay?"

Sai gave him one of his strange smiles. "No. I'm not okay. I've never been okay." He pulled out his drawing book. "I don't have time to explain it to you, but I'm having a change of heart about this mission." He let out a strange chuckle. "Laugh, Naruto. That's a joke. I don't actually have a heart."

Naruto watched Sai draw in the book. Though he couldn't make out the picture, he could see that Sai's drawing style was a bit off. Sai always handled his brush the same way that Sasuke handled his kunai. Solid stance. Flowing motions. Confident. Always hitting the mark. This time, his brushstrokes were choppy and hesitant.

As Sai drew, he said, "You know what I like about you, Naruto?"

Naruto glanced down at Sai's exposed midriff. He cocked his head a little more. "You aren't going to tell me something fruity, are you?"

Sai gave him an even odder smile. "No." He pulled out a square of white paper and began to draw on that as well. "The truth is, we're quite similar, you and I. Your mother died on the same day as mine, and you know next to nothing about her. No one knows who your father is. Could be anybody. And we both were raised by people that were...well, not always so charitable." He stopped drawing. "What I admire is that despite everything you've been through, you still believe in them. Your faith in humanity is very strong. That's your gift. In my case, however..."

Naruto kicked a stone and watched it roll across the clearing. "You about ready? I don't want Sasuke to-"

"He's not out there. He never was. He's..." Sai winced, as though the words were painful to say. "He's somewhere else."

Naruto's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean, Naruto, is that I've been tricking you." He stared at his scribblings on the paper square. "That's what I do. That's my gift. My sole value in this world. I manipulate the people around me to get what I need. I make them do bad things. Terrible things. Things they would be too ashamed to do otherwise. And now it's payback time. With interest."

Sai took the square and flung it into woods. "I'm sorry, my friend, but I need to trick you one last time. I hope you don't hate me as much as Sakura does. Though I know you will anyway." He formed a series of handsigns. A giant hawk sprang from the pages of his book, and he jumped on its back. "I wrote down everything you need to know." He pointed into the woods, in the direction that the paper square went. "Read that, and your path will be crystal clear."

Naruto's mouth hung open as he watched Sai fly off on his hawk. Sai used the heel of his boot to spur it even faster.

He shook his head. "God damn you, Sai. Now I've got to hang out here until the other guys catch up. I hope you drew me a decent map, at least."

It took him a couple of minutes to find the square. When he picked it up, he saw that he had actually written on the back of a photograph. In a shaky hand, the words read, "Danzo made me do this."

He turned it over to look at the picture on the front. It was Sakura. She was sitting on a wooden chair. Her hips were forward and her skirt was bunched around her waist. In front of her, a naked man was gawking at her bare crotch, taking in every detail of her anatomy. Next to them stood Sai. He was staring at her too.

He looked at the back of the photo and then the front again, trying to figure out the punchline of the joke.

His heart raced. His breaths came in short pants. Inside him, something began to move.

And then the world became as red as blood.

Sakura groaned as Danzo's team left the woods and sprinted up the treeless faces of the Torayama foothills. For an old man who needed a cane, Danzo seemed to be very light on his feet. It was taking everything she had to keep up with him and his two bodyguards.

Several minutes later, they stopped on the bald western face of Torayama itself. She stepped forward and peeked around a boulder to watch the great expanse of forest to their north.

Danzo tapped his cane on the sheet of dark grey limestone beneath his feet. "Come back over here, girl. Don't reveal our position until the time is right."

She returned to her new master's side. Her face was screwed up with anxiety.

He huffed. "Thinking about your little boyfriend? If you're planning on warning him, don't think that I won't-"

"He's not my boyfriend," she said. "He wasn't back then, and he's definitely not now."

His brow furrowed. "Then why all of this? Why did you insist on coming here to see him?"

She was silent for a long moment. "Sometimes, I catch my mother staring out of the window. When she was little, her family had a dog. A big one. They kept him locked up in the back yard. One day, he got out. She came out of the front door and there he was, with a kitten in his teeth. He shook it and tore it apart. When she tried to get it away from him, he snapped at her. Scared her to death. He ran off into the woods and never came back."

She let out a jittery sigh and looked down at her feet. "Even now, she's still waiting for that dog. Part of her wants to grab it and hold it and teach it to be good again. And part of her would like nothing better than to know it died out there and will never come back. I mean, it's been years and years. Of course it's dead. It's got to be. And even if it did come back, who's to say that you could train it. Make it good dog. The thing that kills her is that she can never really know."

She stepped forward and peeked around the boulder again, just enough to see the carpet of treetops to their north. "And that's why I needed to come. Because I don't want to spend the rest of my life looking out of windows."

She turned to face him. "Have you ever felt that way about someone?"

He dug his pinky into his ear. "No."

Under her breath she said, "Didn't think so."

She sat on a slab of limestone. When she straightened the hem of her skirt, she realized that she was wearing the same one she always wore to the warehouse. That made her belly even more upset. "You're going to kill him, aren't you? That's why you didn't want the others to come here."

"For the safety of our village, the criminal Sasuke must die. I won't belabor the details, but suffice it to say that his continued existence threatens us all. Sooner or later, someone will get his eyes. It is our duty to take possession of them before...well, before certain hostile forces do. If Princess Tsunade was here, or worse, the Nine Tails, it would make my job a bit more difficult."

She glared at him. "Naruto. His name is Naruto."

"When I buy a bottle of wine, Sakura-chan, I am only concerned with the wine itself, not the bottle it comes in. Do they always permit you to talk this much before an ambush?"

"Sorry."

They were silent for a while. Then Danzo looked over at her. "I will let you keep them. Your emotions. Unless you would like me to take them away."

She put her hand on her belly and stared out at the forest below them. "Take them away? All the things I'm feeling right now?" Her eyes became wide and glassy. "You'll make it all just go away? And never come back?"

Her hand balled into a fist. "No. Because it doesn't just vanish, does it? It all stays locked up inside you. Only the pain goes away. The hurt remains."

"Quite correct. And since we've discovered that girls reach their emotional limits more quickly than boys, you would only be of limited use to me."

She scowled. "Discovered? How? There are no girls in Root." Then she remembered the barrettes that were in the pocket of Sai's jacket. The tiny ones, decorated with stars and hearts, like the ones for little-

Her eyes opened wide.

Danzo leaned on his cane. "In the beginning, we had as many girls as boys. Preferred it that way, actually. A kunoichi can gather information in ways that a man cannot. But they all reached their limits so quickly. When I watched the last one go, I knew it was time for someone else to initiate catharsis in the boys that remained. And now that job has passed to you, Sakura-chan."

Her face turned red. In her mind she could picture the scene. A little girl. Kneeling before Danzo. Hair in pigtails. Eyes glassy, like doll's eyes. Her naked body still pudgy with babyfat. He slaps her. Says things. Dirty things. He stands above her. Gives her that fucking smirk. Pulls out his cock. Tells her to open her mouth. Then he grabs her by her pigtails and-

Then she realized that she was on her feet, almost a meter from him. Her fist was cocked, loaded with enough chakra to level a mountain. Her body was frozen, locked in mid-strike. The only thing on her that moved were the tears that ran down her face. And the wisps of smoke rising from the cursed mark, which burned so brightly that her tongue was starting to char.

Danzo glanced at her and then turned his back. "That will get you nowhere, Sakura-chan. No force on earth can defeat my jutsu." He looked down and began to grind the tip of his cane against the dark rock. "I hope that Sai has taught you well. I hate to lose agents. Especially the young ones."

He looked up and huffed. "Life has never chosen to be subtle with me, and I have never been subtle with it. Sacrifices had to be made. Lots of them. To secure our future."

She forced herself to relax. Slowly, her limbs began to soften and droop. "Our future? Or yours?"

He cocked his head back and smiled. "Ours, of course. After all, my future will the future of this village. When I become the Hokage, that is. That's another reason for keeping your emotions intact. Princess Tsunade won't suspect you're my agent until it's too late."

One of his bodyguards stepped forward. His eyes scanned the sky, as though he was expecting something to emerge from the clouds above. He closed his eyes tightly and tilted his head to the side. A moment later, his eyes popped open. "It's coming."

Danzo turned his head slightly. "Sasuke?"

Sakura was surprised to see fear in the bodyguard's eyes. He stepped backwards. "No. It is coming. The demon. The nine-tailed fox."

Suddenly, the mountaintop above them exploded. Shards of flaming limestone rained down on them.

As Sukura straightened up, she saw something fly around the mountain. It was Sai, riding a giant hawk. He turned and dove toward them. Immediately after, the side of the cliff shattered, barely meters from where he had flown.

Without meaning to, she stepped in front of Danzo's body, as though shielding him from the threat. So that's what he meant. The curse mark not only keeps me from killing him but forces me to protect his ass, too. Shit.

"Arm," said Danzo. He stuck his bandaged right arm out. "Uncover it. Now."

The two bodyguards wasted no time in ripping off the bandages. Underneath, his arm was covered by a thick metal sheath. The guards scrambled to unfastened the bolts that held it together.

Sai headed straight for them. When he got close enough, he leapt from the bird. As his feet hit the ground, he rolled to absorb to impact. Then he sprang to his feet. He drew his kunai and stood at Sakura's side. Tears ran down his face, "Don't worry, Lord Danzo. I will protect you from this foul beast."

When Danzo flicked three of his fingers, Sai hit the ground and convulsed. Smoke rose from the flaming red curse mark in Sai's mouth. "Think you're pretty clever, huh? Figured out how to cheat my jutsu? Well, it doesn't matter. I've already won this battle. Nothing you do can change that."

Sakura looked up at the cliff and saw the one thing in the world she never wanted to see again. It was Naruto, wrapped in the cloak of the demon fox. His barely-human eyes watched them, sizing them up the same way a hungry lion sizes up a herd of antelope. Behind him, three tendrils of blood-red energy swung behind him, like perverse tails.

Behind her, she could hear chunks of Danzo's metal arm sheath clang against the rock. Then she heard Danzo let out a cackling laugh. "Won't come near me, Nine Tails? Too afraid you'll hurt your little girlfriend? Well, I've got a remedy for that. Hmmm. Let's see. What did Sai say your trigger was? Ah, yes. I remember now."

Sakura felt something slam against the side of her head. She flipped over and crashed to the ground. She felt blood ooze from the point of impact. Then she heard Danzo say, "All you have to do is hurt Sakura and it will come charging straight in."

She looked up at the cliff face. Anything that could still be considered human left Naruto's face. A fourth tail erupted from the cloak. And then a fifth.

"Run away," she said. "If he goes beyond three tails, he can't control himself. He'll kill anybody he sees."

"Then see me, demon," said Danzo. "Attack. Let's get this over with."

The thing roared and then flew toward them. She covered her face with her hands and waited for the inevitable.

But the inevitable never happened. After a few seconds of silence, she looked up to see the beast standing in front of Danzo. Danzo's right arm was raised to it, as though this was enough to stop the demon's rage.

Then she saw Naruto's crystal necklace begin to float upwards. It gave out a greenish glow, which slowly enveloped Naruto's body. One by one, the tails disappeared. After a minute, the demon's cloak had vanished. Danzo dropped his arm. Naruto's body fell to the ground. His skin was blood red and his breathing was shaky and shallow.

Sakura turned to Danzo to ask him what happened. Then she saw that his right arm was covered with strange spots. When she saw that the spots were actually eyes implanted into his flesh, she gasped. She looked closer. All of the eyes were red. Like Sasuke's Sharingan eyes.

Her body shook with rage. "That's what all this is about? Getting a new pair of eyes for your...whatever-that-is?"

Danzo stood over Naruto's body. He prodded him with his foot. "To secure our future, I need the power of both the Senjuu and the Uchiha. I started by incorporating the cells of the First Hokage into my arm. Then I added the eyes. As a side benefit, the First Hokage's chakra allows me to completely control the Nine Tails. There was never any real danger."

She started to hyperventilate. "Did you...get the eyes from...Sasuke's clan? Did you...order Itachi to..."

"I think I've answered enough questions for one day, Sakura-chan. Let's wrap this up. We have someone we need to meet, right?" He turned to his bodyguards. "Hold the jinchuuriki up. I need to work on his head for a minute."

She watched them pick up Naruto's limp body. He was barely conscious. "What are you...doing to him?"

He shot her an angry glance. Then he turned to Naruto. He flashed a twisted smile, one that was more disturbing than anything Sai had ever given her.

"It comes out when you get angry, doesn't it? The demon?"

Naruto lifted his head and gave Danzo a groggy stare. "F-Fuck you."

"I would suppose the only way to prevent that from happening is to prevent you from getting angry in the first place. Wouldn't you agree, Sakura-chan."

"No," she said in a weak voice. "Don't do that."

He started weaving a complex set of handsigns. "This will only take a minute or two. Rather complex jutsu. Don't want to burn out the entire brain, do we?"

Naruto looked over at Sakura. "T-Take this guy out."

She looked over at Sai. He was still conscious but he couldn't move. "I can't. I can't break the-" She couldn't finish her sentence. The curse mark prevented it.

"Do it. Take him out."

"I can't." She began to cry again. "He was right. I'm not the hero...of this story. I failed. Again. Everything that happened...was my fault...my choice. It's all over. I'm... I'm sorry."

Naruto looked into her eyes. "Bullshit. That's bullshit, Sakura. What happened to your words? The ones you said? Remember? 'No self-respecting woman would allow a man to treat her like that.' Isn't that your nindo? Your ninja way?"

"Naruto, I..." She looked down at the dark sheet of rock below her feet. "I'm not a...self-respecting woman. Not after...the things I've done."

"Remember who you are, Sakura. Who you really are."

She raised her head and looked into his eyes. Despite all that had happened, and all that was about to happen, his eyes were still as bright and blue as the summer sky.

Then she heard Sai's voice. "He's right. Remember who you are. Remember the things they cannot take away from you." He wheezed. "And, especially, remember your trigger. What's the worst thing? The one thing in this world that's guaranteed to set you off?

Danzo groaned. His hands stopped moving. He held them up and looked at his bodyguards. "It's ready. Bring him here. Lower his head so that I can-"

He turned. For the briefest moment, he stood transfixed, too shocked to move. He could do nothing but stare at the girl beside him. Her face, and especially her eyes, were spilling over with fury, like the Goddess of War incarnate. Her fist contained so much chakra that it gave off a bluish-white glow. And, most disturbing of all, he watched flames erupt from her open mouth, like the firey maw of Hell itself.

"You hurt someone I swore to protect," she said. "Die!"

His head flew, leaving a trail of bloody spatters. It smashed against the cliff, nearly a hundred meters from where his body fell.

The two bodyguards dropped Naruto and stood between Sakura and Danzo's corpse. One looked at his watch and counted off the seconds.

She probed her agonized tongue with her finger. She couldn't taste anything. All she could feel was the pressure of her finger against it.

She looked over at Sai. His mouth was nearly as blackened as hers. Tears were still streaming from his eyes but he didn't sob. She realized that his time had come. Very soon, he would die. Just like his so-called brother.

The guard with the watch said, "57, 58, 59, 60." Both guards looked down at Danzo's corpse, and then at each other. "He's dead." Their faces erupted in smiles. "Finally. He's really dead."

Sakura's eyes opened wide. The curse mark. I can't feel it. It's gone.

Then her eyes narrowed. Finally. It's payback time.

She grabbed Sai by his lapels and hauled him to his feet. He was barely able to stand.

She slapped him. "Bastard." Slap. "Asshole!" Slap. "Faggot!"

She grabbed his lapels again and shook him. "You betrayed me. You betrayed Naruto! You made him turn into the thing he hates the most." Slap. "You cocksucker!" Slap. "You're a little cocksucking whore, just like your mother was. And I hate you."

"I'm sorry, Sakura. I-"

"Shut up! You have to feel sorrow to be sorry. And we both know you can't." She pulled him toward her, putting her face in his. "Well, I know something you can feel. Something you hate more than anything else in this world." She threw him to the ground. "Stay there. Open your mouth."

He trembled. "No. Not from you." He scooted backwards. "Just kill me."

She reached under her skirt and yanked down her underwear. "You don't deserve death. Not yet. I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago. Now lay there. Open your mouth. Close your eyes. And keep them closed."

When she saw that his eyes were closed, she went over to Naruto. He started to speak but she put her finger to her lips. "Keep quiet, Naruto. No matter what you see, you must stay silent. Understand?"

When he nodded, she reached down and grabbed his canteen. "Not a single word. Okay?"

She carefully unscrewed the top as she walked over to Sai. She stood above him, one foot on either side of his shoulders. She held the canteen over his head. "Here we go."

She tipped the canteen for a moment, aiming the shot of water at his eyes. "Missed. It's hard to aim this thing."

She smiled. That'll keep his eyes closed.

She aimed the next jolt of water at his nose. He shook his head and snorted it out. His expression was curled up with horror but his eyes remained closed.

And now for the money shot. I just hope his tastebuds are as roasted as mine. She exhaled loudly and poured a steady stream of water into his mouth. "How do you like the taste, you traitor? The flavor of my hot, stinking, dirty piss? That's what my hate tastes like."

She stopped and watched the pool of water that had collected in his mouth. She knew he was right on the edge.

She smiled. "Swallow."

He hesitated for a moment. Then he spat it out and rolled over. He curled up into the fetal position and sobbed loudly.

"I'm sorry," he said between sobs. "I'm so sorry I hurt you."

She stood and admired her handiwork. Then she knelt down and laid her body against his. "Just cry it out. Cry it all out."

"Why?" he said between sobs. "Why did you save me?"

She hugged his body. "Because you saved me first. You and Naruto. The things you said. They made me remember the person I used to be." She hugged him again. "The person I still am. This is payback for that."

Sakura looked up. Naruto had staggered over to them. He was looking down at the two of them with sad eyes.

"I guess I'll...be going now. I'll leave you two of you alone. I don't think any of us can go after Sasuke right now. I'm sorry I couldn't-"

She grabbed his hand. "Thank you, Naruto. You saved me. And you helped me to save Sai." She squeezed his hand. "Next time, it'll be Sasuke. We'll save Sasuke. The three of us."

He stared at her for a moment. Then the clouds lifted from his sunny blue eyes. He squeezed her hand back. "Yeah. Next time." He smiled. "The three of us. Together. We'll bring him back."

It was another Friday night, and like most Friday nights, she came to the bridge after her shift. He was in his usual place under the streetlight, where the light formed a halo around his head. He smiled when he saw her.

They strolled along the busy streets, enjoying the hum and the press of the crowd. A few people did a double-take when they saw the two of them decked out in boots and leather motorcycle jackets and denim pants. But, in a village where ninjas and magic and talking animals were commonplace, two leather-clad people were hardly front-page news, especially when they appeared to enjoy each other's company so much.

They had spent the last three evenings rehearsing for this night's session. The triggers, the psychological dynamics, the role play. She would play the "good cop" tonight, but that was okay. Sai deserved some time as the bad cop.

When they arrived at the warehouse, they checked each other's attire. The right appearance counted as much as the right attitude.

Sai looked her up and down. "You look pretty dangerous tonight." He cocked his head to the side. "Sometimes I wish you were a real man."

She ran her eyes along his body, pausing briefly at the bulge in his pants. "Yeah. Sometimes I wish you were one too." She swatted his butt. "How many more are there left to do?"

He unlocked the door. "A dozen or so. But I'm starting to get a lot of requests from former Root members who say they don't need a full catharsis, just a tuneup."

She looked out at the river. "Tuneup, my ass. Naughty boys. If this keeps up, we'll be be playing good-cop-bad-cop for the rest of our lives." She thought about that for a moment. She smiled.

He tapped her shoulder. "Why do you do that? Look out at the river? What do you think about?"

"Someone I used to know," she said. "I think about all the bad things he's done to me and to the people I care about. But I won't spend the rest of my life worrying about him. Someday soon, I will find him and I will bring him home. And I will make him a good dog again."

"And when you do," said Sai, "can I watch?"

She flashed him a evil grin. And then she led him inside.