Autumn had come, and some of the trees had already lost their leaves when Sasuke moved out of Kakashi's apartment.

He'd gone through the whole process in the open, from reading the papers to meeting with the landlord and arranging the payments. (The high payments, but it had been difficult for Sasuke to find anyone willing to rent an apartment to him at all--not only was his loyalty still questionable, but it was obvious that his presence would bring Naruto to the building regularly.) There was no official objection, and Sasuke interpreted that as a sign his house arrest had been lifted.

Despite the fact he'd been at Kakashi's for three months, he managed to fit everything he was taking into one large box. He could have used a smaller one if he had worn his weapons instead of packing them, but Sasuke wasn't going to press his fortune that far yet.

That morning, he set the box by the door and formally thanked Kakashi for his questionable hospitality, before apologizing for adding to the kunai scars in the wall. Kakashi had replied with an equally formal acceptance. That had made Sasuke blink, but he refused to show interest in the sides of the man he hadn't seen and left.

Kakashi would have been surprised at the sudden departure, if he hadn't been expecting it from that one night onward. He was aware that Sasuke's first instinct after revealing too much of himself was to flee, emotionally or physically.

—

Sakura and Naruto showed up at his new apartment before noon. Sasuke was already unpacked.

"Where's the furniture?" Naruto immediately asked.

"Hidden," Sasuke replied.

"Why would--hey! Jerk."

"Don't ask stupid questions."

Sakura studied at the apartment with her hands on her hips. It was a one-room affair, not including the bathroom, and it was smaller than his old one, but the barrenness made it seem large. "Do you even have dishes and stuff? Or pots? Or a futon?"

"I'm going to go back to my house later," Sasuke said. "I'll look through the storage for that stuff then."

Naruto had wandered over to the window, but at that he glanced back at Sasuke. Sakura gave him a careful look. "Won't that stuff be . . . dusty? Or molding?"

"All the property is still technically in my brother's name," Sasuke told her, "because I was too young to officially transfer it to myself as next-of-kin. My personal bank account is running low, and I can't afford to buy much if I want to pay rent. I don't know how long it's going to take for me to be given missions again."

"Ah," Sakura murmured.

"Hell, I would've keep leeching off Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said. Sasuke gave him an annoyed look.

"What?" Naruto replied. "You got out of paying the rent, right? Even if you chipped in for groceries and stuff, that's a pretty good deal."

"It's not a 'good deal' if I'm being constantly analyzed," Sasuke said flatly. "I'd rather be alone."

Naruto rolled his eyes and opened the window, leaning out.

"When were you going over there?" Sakura asked. "We'll help move stuff."

Sasuke hesitated for a moment before saying, "After dark."

Sakura nodded.

"You know this view sucks, right?" Naruto asked. "All you can see is a wall."

"It's more strategic than a street accessible one."

Naruto pulled his head back inside. "Naw, there's enough room between the buildings that someone could still get in. You just got cheated."

"Whatever."

—

While Naruto was hauling a chair from the storage room to the Uchihas' front gate, Sakura asked Sasuke if he would keep her notes at his apartment.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Tsunade-sensei is getting suspicious," she replied, packing an old rice cooker into the box they'd brought. "And no one will think it strange if you constantly sweep your apartment."

Sasuke nodded and checked the balance of a small table.

—

Sakura's notes and scrolls had doubled from the last time he saw them. It took Sasuke four visits to sneak everything back to his apartment.

He'd given her descriptions of three seals that he felt would work, based on the small information from the Fourth's scroll. The trouble was that one of them would be useless if the fox demon's chakra was . . . Sasuke didn't want to say "sentient," but if it acted like it was sentient, it wouldn't be restrained by the seal.

"I think it is," Sakura had said without explaining, and then spent another three days trying to find scraps of information to back up her statement.

On the fourth visit, Naruto had seen them on the street and gone with them to the apartment. Sakura joined Lee in the kitchen and started drying the dishes, after directing Sasuke to the right spot on the shelves.

Naruto had looked up from the cards he was shuffling and given Sasuke a curious look when he folded the papers and packed them and the scroll into his emptied medical pouch. Sasuke ignored him, so Naruto finally asked what was going on.

"It's for that project I mentioned," Sakura said from the kitchen. "I have to do some work with seals, so Sasuke's looking at that part for me."

"It's got seals, too?" Naruto said, dealing a round to himself and Sasuke. "Geez! What is it, some top secret medical thing the hag's got you working on?"

"No," Sakura replied, "Tsunade-sensei. . . . It's something I'm studying for myself. I just can't talk about it much because there's so little I know that I'd sound crazy. I just . . . I'm sure I'm right, I just can't get any information to prove it. . . ."

She set a glass down heavily on the counter. "Aurgh! I could find it, I know I . . . if I just had more time!"

In the brief pause after her words, Sasuke snickered.

When Naruto looked over, the other teenager had the hand holding his cards pressed against his mouth to hold back his laughter. He stayed like that for another three seconds, shoulders shaking, and Sakura glanced over the kitchen counter as well.

Then the laughter faded, and Sasuke got a contemplative look.

". . . Freak," Naruto said. "Gimme your cards, I saw them."

When Naruto was reshuffling the deck, Sasuke said Sakura's name.

"What," she replied, in a noticeably clipped tone.

Sasuke kept his eyes on Naruto's hands and watched her from his peripheral vision. "What happened during that month you took off to train with the Hokage that made you hate Mihara so much?"

Sakura dropped the plate she was drying. Lee caught it before it hit the floor.

"How'd you learn about--you asked Kakashi-sensei, didn't you?"

"Neither of you were telling me anything," Sasuke replied.

Sakura took the plate from Lee and resumed drying it, turning her back on Sasuke. "Being away from him for so long made me realize how much I didn't like him."

"That's it?"

Lee gave him a warning look over her shoulder. Sakura was still drying the plate. "Yes."

Naruto had turned around, so he saw Lee's expression as well. He glanced between Sakura and Sasuke.

"It got more annoying after she came back," he said in an attempt to mediate. "We were at war with the Hidden Mist by then, too, so we had to go on more missions with that bastard."

Sasuke looked over at him. "It was that long ago?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Yeah . . . some time when we learned about the Mist being allied with the Sound. The Mist accused us of attacking them, and Tsunade said they brought it on themselves by doing that."

Sasuke leaned back slightly. ". . . I remember that. We were sent to scout the Mist, since one of their jounin was tortured to death and they said it was Konoha's work."

"Oh," Sakura said. "Lee, that sponge is threadbare. Use another."

"I haven't bought a new one yet," he replied.

"Okay. I'll go get one before I forget." She dried her hands on the towel and walked out of the kitchen. "I'll see you guys tomorrow," she told Sasuke and Naruto as she pulled on her boots.

Presumably, if Sakura were going to go buy a sponge for Lee, she would be coming back to Lee's apartment. They were being kicked out.

Naruto looked at the entryway, then gave Sasuke a glare because he knew it was somehow his fault, before struggling to get his shoes on and catch up to her. "Hey, hey, Sakura-chan! Wait up!" he called as he pulled the door shut.

Sasuke collected the scattered cards and pushed them into a deck, thinking.

"I don't want to be rude, Sasuke-kun," Lee said from the kitchen, "but please don't be here when Sakura returns."

Sasuke started to speak, but changed his mind at the last minute--mostly because he doubted Lee would answer his question if Sakura wasn't there. And partly because he was smart enough to not need confirmation.

He put the deck away before leaving.

—

Sakura was already in the street when Naruto managed to get his shoes completely tied.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!"

She slowed down a little, and he jumped the stair railing to catch up to her. "You know better than to listen to him. He wouldn't understand about it."

"It's not. . . ."

She was quiet for half a block before finally saying, "I didn't want Kakashi-sensei to tell him. We were too mean."

Naruto made a noise under his breath. "That bastard deserved it."

Sakura shook her head sharply. "No, we were cruel. Just because we were sick of being told to forget about Sasuke, it wasn't. . . ."

When she trailed off, Naruto hesitated for a little bit before sliding his hands in his pockets. "You aren't cruel," he told her. "And you didn't like him. So there had to have been something weird about him, even if we don't know it."

Sakura laughed under her breath, but it sounded wrong.

"You shouldn't trust my judgment, Naruto," she said a minute later. "I'm not . . . there's some stuff I've. . . ." She smiled faintly, not looking at him. "There's some things that you wouldn't like me anymore if you knew about them."

Naruto made a disbelieving noise and waved her statement off. "Nothing could make me hate Sakura-chan," he said.

Sakura looked at the ground, still wearing that sad half-smile, and didn't reply.

—

That night, Sakura was woken up a couple hours before dawn by the rattling of her window.

Her first garbled thoughts were that something had happened to Lee, to Naruto, they'd finally tried to arrest Sasuke, Ino had gone on a mission with her team just yesterday and she hadn't come back yet maybe something had. . . .

Then she woke up enough to realize that the noise wasn't the tapping of a messenger bird, but of someone trying to quietly bang on the pane. She got up and opened the window.

Naruto swung inside. "He's gone!"

Sakura stared. "What?"

"Sasuke," Naruto hissed. "He left, I felt it a couple minutes ago--he teleported, bastard, I dunno where but it's probably--"

Sakura waved a hand when his voice started rising, and Naruto stopped. She sat down on the bed, shut her eyes, and pressed her palms to her temples.

She didn't bother asking if he was sure. Naruto could pick up her and Sasuke's presence from kilometers away.

Sakura pushed her hair back from her face and gave a quiet, frustrated scream. "You know what? When that guy comes back, you can break his legs. I'll hold him down for you."

Naruto crouched, looking up at her face. ". . . So, you're sure he's coming back?"

Sakura blinked her eyes open and looked at him. "Yeah," she said, letting her hands fall to her lap. "Sasuke promised to do something for me. He won't . . . he won't leave to chase Itachi until after that."

Naruto nodded, and Sakura was again a little disturbed in the complete faith he put in her. "Okay. What should we do?"

Sakura ran a hand through her hair and held it back. "I guess. . . . Pretend nothing happened. It's not like we spend every day with him; just act like everything's normal. As long as he's back before tomorrow, no one should notice."

"What if--?"

Naruto didn't finish the question, and Sakura shrugged a shoulder to show she didn't know what they'd say then either.

—

Despite the laws of drama and Murphy, nothing went wrong.

The day passed. Sakura spent a few hours working in the hospital in place of Shizune and then sparred with Lee, Naruto helped Iruka grade test papers (in theory) after classes were out for the day, and Kakashi was tangled in the same meeting with the Lord of Fire country as Tsunade and Shizune and had no opportunity or motivation to go check up on Sasuke.

After it got dark, Sakura went to Naruto's apartment building and found him sitting on the roof.

Naruto didn't greet her when she sat down a meter away. He didn't even look her way. He was staring out at the sky, arms folded on his knees and one foot tapping in a restless but constant rhythm.

Sakura had only seen him like this once before--three months ago, in the two days between when Naruto claimed that Sasuke had been in the forest and when the Sound attacked. She stayed quiet. Naruto continued to glare at the appearing stars.

Eventually, Sakura shifted her head to the side and whispered so that Oukei, sitting on the roof of the opposite building, wouldn't oversee or hear. "We better go inside somewhere--this doesn't look good. We need to think of what to say tomorr--"

"He's back," Naruto interrupted. When Sakura looked at him, he explained: "He's been back since late afternoon. He's way out past the walls. But he's figured out how far I can smell, so he moved away almost as soon as I noticed." Naruto's foot started tapping a fraction faster, and Sakura shifted to the side. "And I can't go looking, 'cause the hag said she's gonna quarantine me to the tower if I run from the anbu anymore, and I can't let him come with me because there was blood."

"What?" Sakura said, moving so she was kneeling. "Is he--"

"It's not all his," Naruto said shortly. "But I can't tell how much is; he's all tangled up with that damn snake sten--"

Naruto's voice and foot stopped at the same time. He rolled forward into a crouch, and sniffed the air.

Then he tore off the roof and across the nearby buildings.

Sakura swore to herself. Naruto was out of sight before she could get on her feet and chase after him.

—

When she landed on the walkway outside Sasuke's apartment, panting for breath and legs aching from the sudden amount of chakra she'd forced into them, Naruto was already bashing on Sasuke's door.

Sasuke opened it a few seconds later, catching Naruto's fist before it could hit him instead of the door. "Don't annoy my neighbors, dumbass."

Naruto glanced at the bright red slash along Sasuke's jawline before glaring at his eyes. "You reek of snakes."

"Better than smelling like pond scum."

Sakura shoved Naruto in the back, forcing both of them into the apartment. Once the door was shut and locked behind her, she let herself sink to the floor.

Less than a moment later, there was an audible thump on the roof as Oukei landed there in a fashion meant to inform them he was annoyed. Sasuke and Sakura looked up. Naruto ignored it and kept glaring at Sasuke.

After snorting, Sasuke pushed away from the other teenager and moved to the kitchenette. He filled a glass with water before handing it to Sakura.

"Thanks," she mumbled before draining it. Sasuke didn't reply and walked into the bathroom, still ignoring Naruto's glare. Naruto took it upon himself to follow.

Sasuke returned a few seconds later, carrying a full knapsack. Naruto had another one, and he was giving it a confused look.

"What the hell's this crap?" he demanded.

Sasuke crouched beside Sakura and opened the sack, turning it upside down. More than a dozen scrolls slid out.

"This is everything I found in the library that dealt with chakra. I checked for traps, and they're all clean." He fished in the pile for a moment, then brought up a medium-sized scroll tied with a delicate silver cord. Sasuke held it out to her. "This has more description on what the Fourth did. It's a copy, so I don't know if you can trust it, and it doesn't have all of the procedure, but it's got a lot of information on the fox demon. I didn't remember it until yesterday."

Sakura set the glass down carefully and took the scroll from his hand as though she were waiting for the illusion to melt.

Sasuke pulled the second bag from Naruto's arms. "This is just stuff from Kabuto's office. I can't read it--I don't know if he's using some medicnin shorthand--so I took what looked important." He set it down beside the pile.

Sakura cradled the scroll in her lap and wondered vaguely if the second bag was an apology for yesterday. "You . . . this is from . . . how?"

Sasuke sat back and folded his legs. "I told them I was Orochimaru."

Dead silence.

". . . Shit, Sasuke." Naruto sat down on the floor.

Sakura gave the still-healing cut on Sasuke's neck a look. "And they believed it?"

Sasuke absently pressed a thumb to the skin below the scab. "For long enough."

(Sasuke had gotten that wound because he'd been half a kilometer outside of Oto's walls when he turned around, went back to the main building, and started freeing the people who were still locked in the experiment cells. One of them who'd overheard Sasuke talking in Orochimaru's voice had attempted to slit his throat from behind while he was remembering a particular cell's code. Sasuke had thrown him back, but then two more attacked, and the noise brought the attention of the ninjas he'd tricked into thinking he was elsewhere while he escaped.

The majority of people with curse seals were either dead or had run off when Orochimaru and Kabuto and the others didn't return, and there were none left who could activate the second level; so Sasuke wasn't out-powered, just outmanned. He managed to leave without killing too many people, and once he reached the forest he summoned Kyomamushi and two more vipers to stop anyone from following him.)

He didn't feel the need to tell Naruto and Sakura any of that, so he just said, "It wasn't hard to get in and out. With all the fighting, all that's left in the village is the trash, bickering over who should take control and tearing themselves apart. Idiots," he added with a sneer.

"Idiot!" Sakura retorted. "I can't believe you--what if they called your bluff! It's been a month!"

"A month is a reasonable amount of time, Sakura-chan," Sasuke replied. "I would have to wait that long to convince Tsunade-hime and Kakashi that everything was normal. But there wouldn't be any trouble, especially since I have Naruto and Sakura-chan on my side to defend me. And a month would give me plenty of time to collect information from Anko-chan before leaving."

Sakura stared at him. The corner of Sasuke's mouth curled up in a smirk.

It would have worked. It would have worked, she realized. We didn't even think--and if anyone had pushed it, I wouldn't have listened; I would have thought it was just the same old thing again. . . .

Naruto kicked Sasuke in the thigh.

"Don't try to scare us. We would've known if you weren't you."

While Sasuke glared at him, Naruto added with utter conviction: "Orochimaru could never master your kind of assholeness."

Sasuke blinked once, and finally gave him a disbelieving look. "That's not a word."

"That's not the point!"

Sakura let out her breath heavily. "Don't ever do that again. Geez, Sasuke, I can't believe. . . ." She shook her head. "Seriously, never do that. You picked the worst time. . . ."

"Why?" he asked, looking back to her.

Sakura shifted to a more comfortable sitting position, still cradling the scroll. "The Lord of Fire country has been in meetings with Tsunade-sensei and the clan heads and others for the last few days. He's angry that another war started between the hidden villages in less than two decades, especially since we're supposed to be the one keeping the peace."

She shrugged a shoulder. "It's not like he could do anything while the war or the cleanup with the Mist was going on, but now he's raising hell and threatening to cut Konoha's funding." Sakura gave him a pointed look. "It would be really bad to irritate Tsunade-sensei right now. Really bad. I wouldn't even dare it."

Sasuke nodded briefly.

After a few moments of silence, Sakura looked back at the scroll. She started to untie the cord when Naruto said quietly, "Hey."

They looked over at him, but he was staring at Sakura. "Why did you need information on the fox demon?"

Sakura glanced down at the scroll. She smoothed out the cord, then took a breath and looked up at him.

"Naruto . . . do you want to go back to the way you were?"

—

When she finished explaining everything, including her research and a little bit about the surgery's procedure, Naruto said "No."

Sakura had moved to the chair while talking, and she looked down at him, startled. "Huh?"

Naruto glared up at her from where he was hunched over. "This is one of those 'power of human sacrifice' things, isn't it," he said flatly. "No. No way."

Sakura hesitated. Then she chuckled faintly and leaned on the chair's arm. "Yeah. It is."

Before Naruto could say anything, she continued. "Or it would be, if I were crazy enough to try and do it all on my own." She made a face at Naruto. "But you're too annoying to die for. Sasuke is going to seal the area that's too difficult, so all I have to do is separate the chakra strands. And I won't even have to be checking for each individual spot--Hinata-chan is going to do that."

"You talked to Sasuke and Hinata before me?"

She nodded. "I had to make sure this was possible before saying anything. Otherwise, to say something that would give hope and then take it back. . . ." She paused. "And you'll keep the fox demon from trying to attack me, right?"

"Yes," Naruto replied without hesitation.

Sakura smiled. "Then, with everything split up, we'll be okay. It won't be easy, but we can do it."

Naruto looked at Sasuke, who shrugged, and then looked at the scab along his jaw. He glanced at the scrolls that were still heaped on the floor before gazing back up at Sakura. "You promise it's safe? Like that?"

"I don't lie to you guys," she replied.

". . . okay," Naruto finally said.

—

Sakura had wanted to read the scroll then, but she knew after the way they'd shown up at Sasuke's apartment, if they stayed too long Oukei would become suspicious. She healed Sasuke's throat from a fresh cut to an old scar, and then the two of them left.

She came over late the next day, after a six-hour round in the hospital where she was filling in for Shizune again because, as she informed Sasuke, the Lord of Fire country was being an ass and not appreciating the fact that Konoha had kept the civilian casualties to almost non-existent, which was a lot better than the last war.

"What?" she said when Sasuke just stared at her. "Didn't you guys have that problem?"

"The Lord of Sound country was a spy for Oto," Sasuke replied.

". . . Lucky." Sakura dropped the subject with that and dived into the scrolls. She only took a break when Sasuke went out and brought Lee back before making dinner for both of them.

Sasuke found it vaguely annoying that after going through all the trouble of getting his own apartment again, he still wasn't alone. And now it was no longer possible to walk across the floor without stepping on unrolled scrolls. He once walked along the wall to make a point, but Sakura just blithely thanked him for not disturbing her notes.

But at least it only lasted for five days, and Sakura didn't stay overnight so she couldn't hear if he started talking in his sleep. This meant it was still better than Kakashi's apartment.

Ino showed up at his apartment the morning of the third day, forced a wrapped boxed lunch into his hands, and gave him a surprisingly threatening look as she told him to make sure Sakura ate because she looked too damn pale lately and the doctors at the hospital had noticed.

"People will start talking if you're here all the time," he mentioned that afternoon when Sakura stopped by during her lunch break.

She didn't look up from the scroll. "If they think I would betray Lee, they're too stupid for me to care about."

Sasuke made a noncommittal noise and continued sharpening the edge of the kunai he was holding. He made Sakura take the bento with her when she left.

On the last day, when Sasuke returned from sparring with Naruto, Sakura was staring down at the scroll and resting her temples in her palms. When he had washed up and cooked dinner and set a bowl of rice in front of her, she was still sitting that way.

"What is it?"

"Something's wrong," Sakura said, still staring at the scroll. "I was mostly right about what the Fourth did, except . . . it doesn't make sense. This drains less chakra than I calculated."

Sasuke frowned. "Isn't that good?"

"Yes . . . but. . . ." She shook her head and folded her arms on the table. "I don't understand. I thought the reason the fox was sealed into Naruto was because there was no choice . . . but if the Fourth was as powerful as everyone says, he should have been able to kill the demon completely. That man's footnote about some death god jutsu. . . ."

She trailed off. Sasuke's frown deepened. "What's the problem?"

"I just . . . I can't make it make sense." Sakura hesitated for another moment. "It's like. . . ."

Then she stopped herself and let out a breath. She rolled the scroll up. "Okay. I know what happened. And, it's sentient--so you need to use one of the other two seals."

He nodded once. Sakura stood.

"I have to get a hold of Hinata-chan. I'll explain everything fully when all five of us meet, and then we can do it."

"Five?"

"Lee's going to be our alibi for that day. This will take a couple hours, at the least."

Sasuke made another motion of acknowledgement. Sakura picked up the cooling bowl of rice and opened one of Kabuto's scrolls.

"Whoa," she said a minute later. "Are these all like this?"

Sasuke looked over. "Yeah. Is it not shorthand?"

"Not any I know," she said. "It doesn't even look like code." She unrolled it further and set it on the table. "See, some things are written normally, like here," she indicated, "but others are . . . geez, it's like he only wrote one character to denote a whole phrase. And then blurred the lines into each other just be annoying. Did he secretly hate Orochimaru or something?" she added in a half joke.

"Of course," Sasuke replied. "We all hated him."

Sakura paused at that, but she didn't look up from the scroll. ". . . Then. . . ? Ah, no." She took a bite of rice. "It's not important."

"So they're useless?" he said, indicating the rest of the knapsack with an elbow.

She shook her head. "No. Just a challenge."

Sasuke snorted faintly, and they finished the meal in silence.

——

Sakura managed to contact Hinata that evening, and worked everything out so that the five of them would meet at Sasuke's apartment two nights later.

But Hinata was late; it was thirty minutes past the arranged time when Sakura finally started describing the process that the Fourth had used to seal the fox demon into Naruto.

"The problem is that there's a chunk missing from the middle," she explained. "There's a note that's added at the end, about a jutsu that makes a pact with a death god and grants the user the power for one act in exchange for something . . . his life, I guess, since it's a death god . . . but however it was used isn't described. I guess it was so forbidden it can't even be written down. Or the Fourth invented it."

"Or there wasn't time to write it down," Sasuke said. "If the payment is life."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed, "but someone else must have known, or this wouldn't be here. I think it's Orochimaru's own note, not part of the original scroll. And there's no mention where he learned it from."

Naruto wiped his palms on his pants. "Wait, you mean the Fourth used some life-eating jutsu to, to . . . to what?"

"He managed to hold the fox demon long enough to . . ." Sakura made a hand motion that shifted into the first seal of the Eight Divination Sealing Style, "to, like . . . liquefy it. Or transmute it into pure chakra. That was the first step. The rest of the seals look like they were the way to harness it so it could be moved."

Naruto pointed to his chest. "And then he shoved it into me."

Sakura nodded.

". . . Glad he came from our village," Naruto said after a long pause.

"No kidding," Sakura replied. She leaned back in the chair. "That's why you've got that kind of stamina--when it was sealed into you, some of the chakra must have fused with yours immediately. There couldn't have been enough room for both."

There was a tap at the door, and Sasuke let Hinata in.

She gave everyone a quick, apologetic nod before pushing a bit of hair back underneath the protector tied around her forehead. "I'm sorry for being late. I had trouble getting here unseen."

Sakura stood up and motioned Hinata to the lone chair in the room. "Did Kurenai-san not want you to go out?" she asked, sitting down next to Lee.

"Ah, no," Hinata said quietly. "I moved back to the . . . to my family's house, recently."

Sasuke's head lifted slightly before he stopped himself. Naruto noticed, and looked at Hinata carefully.

"I said I was going to go shopping," she explained, "but Neji-niisan came with me, so I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stay here. I'm very sorry."

Sakura shook her head. "It's not your fault. Okay. Well, everyone knows their part, and I've told the guys what you would be doing . . . Sasuke is going to seal away that problematic area around Naruto's stomach that you pointed out."

"Okay," Hinata said with a nod, glancing over at him. Sasuke didn't look at her.

"Lee's going to be our alibi," Sakura continued. "I think . . . when we find a day that we all have free and that we won't have to use any chakra beforehand, we can say we're going to train together. That way we'll have an excuse to be moving while it's still dawn."

"What about the anbu guard?" Sasuke said.

"I'll take care of it," Sakura said. "It would be better to confuse him with clones of ourselves, but I really don't want to waste any chakra. I'll drug him for several hours."

"I'll make sure that no one notices him, or comes nearby," Lee said. "But the problem is that Sakura plans--"

"Don't start it again, Lee, please," she interrupted. "There's no other option."

"But if something--"

Naruto shoved himself onto his feet, strode across the room, and yanked Hinata's forehead protector off. She gave a startled cry, pressing her hands to her head.

Sakura and Lee stood up. "Naruto!" she snapped. "What the. . . ."

And then her words died in her throat, because the ugly black of the curse seal was visible through Hinata's splayed fingers.

Naruto's grip around the forehead protector was so tight that the metal was threatening to bend, and he was shaking. "When . . . who did . . . why didn't you say anything!"

Sakura stepped forward and set a hand on his arm. "Naruto--"

He shoved her away without taking his eyes off Hinata. Sakura stumbled back, and Lee caught her.

When Lee noticed that her arm was bleeding where Naruto's claws had slashed it, he pulled her and himself back before stepping in front. Sasuke had already rolled onto the balls of his feet and shifted his eyes to the sharingan. Sakura mouthed 'don't panic' to Hinata.

Hinata was staring directly at Naruto, but she still saw the other teenager's motions.

"Which one of them did it?" Naruto growled.

". . . Are you going to hurt my family, Naruto-kun?" she asked quietly.

He clenched the forehead protector tighter. "How can . . . can you call that family?"

". . . I . . . I was given the chance to improve, Naruto-kun," she said. "My father gave me years to become worthy of being clan heir. I tried my very best. . . . But Hanabi-sama is stronger than me. She was born that way."

Naruto was still staring at her, but some of the anger had been replaced now. Hinata said "It had to be one of us," and held out her hand for the forehead protector.

Her voice had been even enough, but her hand was trembling.

Naruto stared at her hand. He looked over at Lee, who was still standing between him and Sakura, and at Sakura, who had blood running down her arm. Then he glanced toward Sasuke, who was looking at his stomach with a carefully blank expression.

Naruto shuddered and pushed the forehead protector into her hand. He backed away until he hit the opposite wall, and sank to the ground, wrapping his arms over his stomach and folding in on himself.

It was quiet.

After half a minute, Sakura sat down carefully. Lee crouched, keeping his position between her and Naruto. Hinata was still trying to tie her forehead protector with shaking fingers.

After Sasuke let his eyes bleed back to black, and Hinata managed to make a passable knot, Sakura let her breath out quietly. ". . . Naruto?"

"Yeah," he muttered.

"Is . . . everything. . . ?"

"He wants what's mine," Naruto hissed, curling in a little tighter.

Sakura bit her lip.

Another two minutes passed before Naruto finally let his legs splay out in front of him. He looked at Hinata. "I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't . . . I. . . ."

She shook her head slightly. "It's okay."

"It's not okay!"

"It happened," Hinata said. "There's nothing to be done."

"There's gotta be--isn't there some way to fix it?" He looked from her to Sakura.

"Curse seals can't be removed," Sasuke replied. "Not without killing the bearer."

". . . Yes." Hinata looked down at her hands.

Naruto swore. He pulled a leg back up and rested his arm on it, before swearing more. Then he banged a fist against the floor.

Sasuke gave him a look. "Don't irritate my neighbors, dammit--the landlord wants an excuse to get rid of me."

Another long, uncomfortable silence filled the room, and finally Sasuke looked at Sakura. "What are you trying to do that Lee's so against?"

Lee started to speak, but Sakura held up a hand. "No." She glanced at the teenager hunched against the wall. "Naruto, you need to leave."

He gave her a half-confused, half-hurt look. Sakura smiled gently. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault. I didn't think . . . we've been discussing how to re-trap the fox demon while it's been able to hear. That's like deciding how to attack a village while the Kage is listening. It's better if. . . ." She paused, then asked, "Will you trust me?"

He nodded.

"Okay. . . ." She nodded as well. "Lee, you know everything, so . . . can you go back with him?"

Lee nodded, but said, "Sakura, please think about the consequences if. . . ."

He trailed off as she shook her head, and turned to Naruto.

When the two of them were gone, Sakura leaned against the table and exhaled heavily. Then she went to the kitchen sink and started washing off her arm. Sasuke walked to the bathroom.

Hinata handed her a towel, and Sakura had a hard time even looking at her sideways. "Hinata-chan . . . I'm so sorry to hear about. . . ."

Hinata shook her head. "It's okay."

"No it's not!" Sakura insisted. "It's not fair, why--how can you just say that?"

Hinata looked directly at her. "How is it fair to force someone inherently talented to a life in the branch house, just because she was born second? Why should Hanabi-sama have to be another Neji-niisan?"

Sakura didn't have a reply to that. She turned the towel over.

Hinata looked down as well. "I. . . . Please don't tell Naruto-kun this, but everyone knew it was going to happen. Hanabi-sama didn't receive the curse seal at four, like she was supposed to. I meant it when I said my father gave me every chance. . . . Hanabi-sama will be a better clan heir than I could be."

Before Sakura could think of what to say in reply, Sasuke dropped the first-aid kit he'd retrieved onto the table.

"Don't defend that barbaric practice in my house," he told Hinata before disappearing into the bathroom again and shutting the door.

"Sasuke!" Sakura called, but Hinata only shook her head again. Sakura gave her a frustrated look. "Don't let him get away with that!"

". . . One of the founders of the Uchiha clan came from the Hyuuga branch house," Hinata told her in a very quiet whisper. When Sakura blinked, she added: "And, we were in the same class at the Academy, so. . . ."

. . . Ah, Sakura realized a few moments later. It was probably indoctrinated in him while his parents were still alive.

She checked if the bleeding had stopped. It hadn't. "Still. . . ."

"Have you been by the police station lately, Sakura-chan?" Hinata reminded her.

Sakura fell silent.

When the Uchiha clan was slaughtered, the police force lost almost three-fourths of their men. Several clans had been drawn from to fill in the empty slots, but over time it was the Hyuugas who had taken over. Sakura and Naruto were the first to notice when the Uchiha fan disappeared from the police crest, a month after Sasuke left.

When the bleeding was mostly done, Sakura left the towel on the counter before sitting down and beginning to dab disinfectant on her arm. Hinata sat next to her and touched the tabletop.

"Did this come from the Uchiha compound?" she asked.

"Yeah," Sakura said, and Hinata nodded briefly.

When she was finished with the disinfectant, Sakura called, "Sasuke, will you bring me some tape?"

A cabinet rattled in the quiet, and then Sasuke returned. He gave her arm a look as he set the tape down. "How deep was it?"

"Not that much," she replied, beginning to wrap the bandage around her arm, "but I always leave the scars when he does this. It's a good reminder."

Sasuke frowned. "It's happened before?"

"Once in a while. . . . He forgets he has claws." She tore the edge of the bandage free, and Hinata handed her a piece of tape. "It's the first time he hasn't apologized, though," she commented quietly as she taped the edge down.

"Hn," was all Sasuke replied.

"I have an overnight mission the day after tomorrow," Sakura told them, resting her arm on the table. "And I need a full day to rest up after that. But the next day . . . Thursday, can you both make that day free? And the one before it--don't expend any chakra."

They both nodded.

"Good," Sakura murmured, trying not to look at either her arm or the first-aid kit.

Hinata packed the bandages and the disinfectant back into the container. She set the tape on the lid before holding it out to Sasuke.

"This is a good table you have," she told him. "It doesn't scar easily."

Sasuke stared at her for a moment before taking the kit. "I've heard the Hyuuga clan has excellent tables as well."

"I suppose so," Hinata replied. "They all come from the same wood."

"That's what makes the quality of the varnish important."

"Maybe. . . . But it's not the varnish that resists scarring."

"True," Sasuke acknowledged after a long pause. He took the kit back to the bathroom.

". . . Was that was an apology?" Sakura whispered to Hinata. When the other teenager nodded faintly, she said, "Okay."

Things were peaceful for all of the twenty-eight seconds it took Sasuke to put the kit away, come back, and ask again what Lee had been so concerned about.

Under the combined power of Sasuke and Hinata's patient staring, Sakura finally told them that the surgery was going to be performed far from Konoha. They reacted in the same way as Lee had.

"There's not an option, okay?" Sakura replied. "Are we supposed to sneak back into the village after going to all the work to get out? And if something . . . if something goes wrong, we can't be in the middle of here."

"But, even so . . . Sakura-chan. . . ."

"You said you can do it, didn't you?" Sasuke asked. "We trust your judgment. We can find a way back in without being seen."

"But if--"

"If something does go wrong, it'll kill us first, so who cares after that? I'll find a seal that will act as a warning to everyone else." He glared at her. "It's a stupid risk, and if--"

There was a knock at the door. Sasuke exhaled in irritation and started to stand up, but then Sakura said, "Lee doesn't knock like that."

He paused. Hinata looked at the door and activated her byakugan.

". . . oh!" She bit her lip. "It's Neji-niisan, I have to. . . ."

Sasuke picked up the scroll and the notes and pushed them at Sakura. She fled into the bathroom.

That's no use if he already looked through the walls to find Hinata, Sasuke thought, but he just looked at the other teenager.

"Can he read lips?" he asked her.

Hinata made a nervous head motion and continued strapping on her shoes. "Neji-niisan doesn't tell people what he can do."

"Keh." Sasuke opened the door.

Neji gave him the barest possible version of a greeting before looking at Hinata. "Are you done shopping?" he asked her, holding up a sack.

"Ah! Um, yes, thank you." She nodded to Sasuke. "Goodbye, Sasuke-kun, and . . . ah, goodbye."

Sasuke closed the door behind them, and Sakura returned to the room sans scrolls.

"Crap," she muttered. "Were we saying incriminating things or just suspicious ones?"

"We'll know by tomorrow whether he can or not," Sasuke said. "Or whether he feels he owes more to Konoha or Naruto."

"I guess so. . . . I'll ask Lee if he knows."

"If you try to perform the surgery away from the village, I won't help you."

Sakura gave him a cold glare. "Don't joke."

"I'm not." Sasuke matched her glare and folded his arms. "You're not going to be 'exhausted' by the end of this; you're going to be half-dead, even with our help. What if we can't get you back to the hospital in time? What do you think Naruto will do if he learns you died after we promised it was safe?"

Sakura looked away.

Finally, she sat down in the chair. "But we'll be putting the whole village at risk. . . ."

"Lee and Hinata and I have already accepted that possibility. If you can't. . . ." He shrugged. "Then, if you notice something is wrong, tell me and I'll kill him before the fox demon takes over."

The previous glare was warm compared to this one. "That's unacceptable," Sakura bit off.

"Then don't fail." He leaned against the wall. "If you don't fail, we can stay in the village without risk, and then everything may turn out all right."

Sakura muttered something derogatory about Sasuke's parentage, but she eventually agreed to change the plan. She would perform the surgery in the small medic room of the Hokage tower, so they would be able to get Tsunade quickly.

Lee was delighted to hear the news when he returned. He also didn't know whether Neji could read lips.

—

Sasuke spent the next day searching through the almost-abandoned Nakano shrine, looking for paper that was suitable to make ofuda from. He summoned Kyomamushi to make sure no one entered while he was running through the processes he remembered to purify the paper.

Two hours later, when Sasuke determined that he had remembered everything in the proper order and was finished, he called the snake back inside.

"Do those feel holy to you?" he asked as he cleaned up the fire, and pointed at the small pile of ofuda over his shoulder.

Kyomamushi made the noise that Sasuke had come to recognize as laughter before slithering over to the seventh tatami mat on the far right. "They won't stop a demon," it said, "but they're good enough to buy peace of mind."

Sasuke nodded without replying. He cleaned away the last of the ashes and made a note to come by some day to fully sweep the place out.

Kyomamushi curled around enough to rest his head on his body, and waited patiently for Sasuke to turn around.

When he did, the teenager didn't recognize the spot for a moment. The snake could tell when he caught on, because Sasuke froze and then glared. Kyomamushi stared back at him with one eye.

"You knew," Sasuke finally said. "You knew even before I told you."

"The Uchiha clan is fairly old," the viper replied. "You aren't the only one to sign the contract." It shifted enough to slide its head onto the mat, but continued staring at Sasuke. "You are the first one to stay relatively sane after learning that particular truth," it added.

Sasuke stayed still for several moments, before turning around.

"There were others who knew," he said finally. "I think my father knew, because Itachi wasn't really welcome in most of our kin's homes, so he must have learned through ours." Sasuke realized his words were stumbling, and stayed quiet for a moment. He absently dusted the shrine with a palm. "And he was sane."

"I didn't make myself clear," the snake replied. "You were the first with the potential to gain it that stayed sane."

". . . Hn," was all Sasuke said.

When he picked up the ofuda and began packing them away, Kyomamushi curled around itself once more. "You need a coat," it told him. "It's getting cold."

"I'm fine," he replied. "If I wrap my arms, and wear layers, I'll be fine until winter comes."

"And if they're not giving you paid missions by then?"

"Then I'll think of something," Sasuke said with an edge in his voice. "You don't need to be concerned."

The viper considered mentioning that at least Orochimaru had taken good care of Sasuke's body while trying to break down his mind, but decided it would be unnecessary. Instead, he shifted his head to stare at Sasuke with both eyes.

"You should let the fox die," Kyomamushi said. "I told you, you'll never be able to use the mangekyou healthily while you know he's alive."

"I am aware of your advice," Sasuke replied, closing his kit.

The viper stared at him for several seconds. Finally it flicked its tongue out briefly.

"You humans," Kyomamushi said, before uncurling. "I'm going back."

"Thank you for your work," he said.

"Anytime, Sasuke," the snake told him. "Try not to get killed," it added as it disappeared.

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