Sakura sighed as she settled deeper into the bath in her and Shikamaru's quarters, feeling the tension finally start to drain out of her body.

It had been a messy, hectic and painful couple of hours, and she wanted nothing more than to bury herself under a pile of blankets and sleep for a month. Unfortunately, she had a feeling things were going to get a lot worse before they got better.

A knock sounded on the bathroom door and Sakura groaned, weary. "Yeah?"

Shikamaru stuck his head in to the bathroom, and Sakura was distantly amused to note his eyes were closed.

"Chojuro's here." The Nara announced, then, "And I brought you a change of clothes."

Sakura blinked, thrown. She turned her head and looked around the room, saw her towel, discarded clothes and pouches, a hair band and chest bindings and- oh. She'd forgotten her pyjamas. Huh. Apparently, she really was tired.

"I- Thank you." She hastened to say, then smiled wryly. "You can open your eyes, you know."

She was covered in mountains of soap bubbles, and the water was murky with dried blood, soot and dirt – there was little chance of Shikamaru seeing anything incriminating.

Carefully, Shikamaru opened his eyes and a smirk pulled at his lips when he saw her kingdom of bubbles and messy hair. "Better safe than sorry." He pointed out and stepped into the bathroom. "Here, I just grabbed your civvies. Need anything else?"

"Nah." Sakura replied and rolled her shoulders. "Just entertain our guest till I'm done and then I'll make dinner."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "I actually like the guy, y'know. You can stop saying that like it's such a chore." When Sakura just winked, he sighed, "Troublesome woman."

Once she was alone in the bathroom, she let the smile drop from her face.

A good fifth of the Village had been totalled by Orochimaru's summons and army. Again. And although the summons had been banished and the army surrendered, it didn't change the fact that Orochimaru was now within the Village.

After she left Kakashi and Jiraiya, she'd wanted nothing more than to run to Genma and hug him within an inch of his life, but she wasn't allowed to. Once the Oto shinobi capitulated, the jounin had been tasked with escorting them to T&I cells while chunin and genin went to free the civilians and begin the clean-up. She'd caught brief glances of her partner between rounds, but never close enough to talk.

On top of that, keeping a renegade Sannin in the Village seemed to Sakura like asking for danger.

She had no idea what sort of long game the Godaime was playing, but she found herself doubting its success.

Still, that was a worry for after her bath, some food and at least six hours of sleep.

"No."

Genma met Tsunade's gaze head-on, ignored Jiraiya's sputtering and Kakashi's startled cough. He also steadfastly ignored the sharp golden eyes tracking his every move.

"That wasn't a request, Shiranui." Tsunade snapped, frowning, and gestured to the seal matrix on the far-too-pale chest. "Uchiha junior implied it's Danzo's, and knowing that cockroach, there's a chance-" she cut herself off, took a deep breath, and levelled Genma with a demanding glare. "I need to know if there's even a trace of my teammate left under than seal."

Genma shook his head. "I'm not refusing out of spite, Tsunade-sama." He said, inwardly hoping they didn't realise that that wasn't quite true. "But I never let my study of fuinjutsu take me into the field of juinjutsu. I genuinely wouldn't even know where to start, and barring Jiraiya-sama, there's nobody in the Village who would."

Tsunade grit her teeth, tensed her jaw, and Genma watched as her gaze strayed to the bound Sannin once again, the conflict in her eyes clear.

Then, she froze.

"Your kid studied the Hyuuga Cursed Seal." She said slowly, and Genma heard alarm bells go off in his head at the look on her face.

Not good!

"Only insofar as to how it seals the doujutsu." He stalled, noting Kakashi's tense posture and the wary look he was shooting Tsunade. "Nothing on the... other applications."

But it seemed Tsunade didn't hear him. "I need her here."

The alarm bells in his head rose to a deafening decibel.

"My partner won't be happy." He pointed out, intentionally omitting the blonde's title to show his displeasure.

Tsunade flashed him a smile, sharp and full of teeth and the furthest from comforting he'd ever seen. "I don't need her to be happy. I need her to fix this. Go."

"She might try to kill him." Genma tried, standing his ground and shooting a meaningful look at the incapacitated Snake Sannin, but Tsunade was undeterred.

"Go, Shiranui." Genma didn't bow, just turned his back on the Godaime, blatantly disrespectful now, and let a scowl twist his face.

He met Kakashi's gaze, saw his mounting panic reflected in the mismatched eyes, and wordlessly chucked his weapons pouch at the man.

Then, he reached within himself for the familiar pulse of chakra that was always with him and pulled.

In the next second, he was standing in a studio apartment. After taking a second to reorient himself and noting the suspicious lack of traps triggered by his presence, his gaze was drawn to the king sized bed and the three slumbering teens sprawled on it.

An overwhelming wave of fondness hit him as he took in the dogpile on the bed. Sakura somehow managed to rest her head on Shikamaru's stomach and her legs over Chojuro's torso, while the boys either got each other's legs or bony arms as pillows.

They also all looked exhausted. Far beyond the standard battle-fatigue or sleep deprivation, but a bone-deep weariness that seemed to be writ into every line of their faces, even in sleep.

Predictably, and as testament to their long acquaintance and familiarity with each other, Sakura stirred not five seconds later despite her obvious fatigue. She blinked her eyes open rather sluggishly, the shadows under them bruise-black, all the more apparent on her pale skin, but her gaze sharpened as soon as she noticed him.

"Gen?" she mouthed, sitting up carefully, but even that didn't stop her wincing with every movement.

Genma stepped towards her and offered her a hand which she took with a tired smile, and together they extricated her from the dogpile.

"What's up?" she asked through a yawn, and Genma allowed himself to be pulled him a little away from the bed and the boys on it – boys, who, now that she wasn't between them, gravitated towards the middle of the bed and, by extension, each other.

Genma sighed and wondered what the best way to approach this was.

"Hokage wants to talk to you. She needs your sealing know-how." He told her simply, aware that any more detail could lead to trouble.

Sakura frowned and rubbed her eye, shooting him a confused look from the other. "And you couldn't have done it?"

Genma felt a wry smile pull at his lips. Good question. "It's not a branch I'm particularly well-versed in." he demurred and valiantly ignored the bitter taste in his mouth at the words he forced through.

But what the military dictator wants, the military dictator gets.

Sakura appraised him for a few seconds, clearly more than a little baffled, but eventually nodded. "Alright." She paused to grab a navy sweater – probably Chojuro's – from the sofa and shoved her feet into her boots. Then she ran a hand through her hair, snagged a hairband from the coffee table and tried for a smile. "Lead the way."

Genma grabbed his partner's hand, reached with his chakra-sense for the bunch of Hiraishin tags in his weapons pouch that he'd chucked at Kakashi and–

–and then they were standing in the highest security cell, and as he still had her hand in his, Genma felt the exact moment Sakura realised what she'd been called in for – every muscle in her body tensed.

"Ah, Sakura," Tsunade greeted distractedly, stepping away from the quiet conversation she'd been engaged in with Jiraiya, "good, I need you to look at-"

"Absolutely not." Sakura snapped, cutting the Godaime off. She ripped her hand out of Genma's hold and took a step back, eyes trained on the Snake Sannin in the middle of the room. She'd grown even paler and her eyes were wide and Genma could see her pulse hammering in her throat.

Sakura was terrified.

Tsunade, however, was starting to look annoyed. "He's got a seal on his chest that looks like one of Danzo's. You're a fuinjutsu user who's studied the Hyuuga Cursed Seal and the ROOT one. I need you to look at this one."

"Godaime," Sakura gritted out, and Genma did a double-take at the sheer fury that radiated from the word. The rosette balled her hands into fists, but that still didn't hide their tremble, "if I get that close, I'll kill him."

For the first time since Genma stepped into the cell, the light in Orochimaru's eyes changed. He seemed intrigued, almost amused at Sakura's declaration, and Genma saw his partner flinch when the sharp golden eyes met hers.

"There are two Sannin and the ANBU Commander in the room with you." Tsunade snapped, then visibly wrestled her temper back under control. "I'm sceptical as to the damage even you could deal out in this situation."

Sakura looked on the verge of tears, but finally took a shaky step forward. Genma reached out, intending to comfort his partner, but his hand was batted away before it had a chance to make contact.

"Don't touch me." Sakura hissed, the anger in her voice momentarily overcoming its tremble. "You knew."

Genma was too startled to respond.

There was a staggering depth of emotion in the sharp glare Sakura threw him. Anger was most prominent, but there was hurt too, pain and fear and something he'd never seen before, but looked a lot like betrayal.

He watched, stunned, as Sakura made her way over to the bound Sannin and sank to her knees before him and pulled up the sleeve of her sweater, revealing her hammerspace seal. A moment later, she'd produced an inkstone and a set of brushes, and stilled.

"Shiranui," Tsunade spoke up, sending him a meaningful look, "dismissed."

Genma wanted to protest, wanted to stay as silent support, even if seemingly unwelcome, but Sakura's back remained resolutely turned to him, the rosette making no indication she even heard the order.

Gritting his teeth, Genma bowed with bad grace and left.

Sakura let out the breath she'd been holding, and with it, she threw away her panic, her fatigue, the bitter sting of betrayal that weighed her down and any sense of 'self' she had left.

When she opened her eyes, her face was the blank mask of a professional interrogator; cold, empty, and emotionless.

She barely registered Jiraiya kneeling down beside her as she pumped a tiny pulse of chakra into the seal on the Sannin's chest and frowned. It was old, that much was clear, and deeply integrated, but without seeing how it interacted with his chakra network, Sakura had no idea how to even begin unravelling it.

She grabbed a pale wrist, fought a shiver of disgust and revulsion that ran down her spine and set her brush to alabaster skin.

Sakura worked in silence for a few seconds, then Jiraiya seemed to realise what she was doing and spoke up.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, somewhat panicked. "He already has chakra-restricting seals. Yours, even."

"I know." Sakura said simply, probably sharper than she should have. "But I need to see how the seal on his chest interacts with his chakra system so I need at least 1% running through his body."

Silence fell around them again as she got back to the seal she was drawing, then Jiraiya grew worryingly still.

"That's not a chakra suppressant." He said quietly, voice devoid of inflection this time, and Sakura couldn't help but smirk tiredly as she ripped off the old seal-tag.

"Indeed it's not."

She could feel Jiraiya's probing look even though she didn't look away from her seal. "That will fry his coils." He said dully, but Sakura didn't deign it with an answer.

Tsunade started, visibly concerned, but Orochimaru's gaze became, if anything, only more amused and intrigued. Sakura, however, just shrugged.

"If he decides to use the 1% that's currently coursing through his body? Yes, it will." She agreed simply. "But I've been manipulated into this situation and that means that whatever I do here is on my terms. And that includes making sure even my paranoia feels safe to be within three feet of him."

But this time, before Jiraiya could reply, Orochimaru opened his mouth.

(Sakura swore to herself that the next time she draws this seal, she'll integrate a paralysing tag because fuck.)

"Are you really so afraid of me, little kunoichi?" he asked, his voice just as low and sibilant as in Sakura's nightmares.

Sakura did her best to ignore him and laid her hand on the seal matrix on his chest instead.

"It's rude to ignore someone who asked you a question." He pushed, and that- no.

"I was ordered to look at the seal." She snapped, digging her nails into the skin of his pectoral. "Conversation wasn't part of the deal."

Even focused as she was on his seal, Sakura didn't miss the slow, satisfied smirk that bloomed on Orochimaru's face. "You really are Anko's student. So testy."

"Don't," she hissed, and this time, when she pushed her chakra into his seal, she didn't bother to control it. She saw the wince as her uncontrolled energy fought its way into and across his coils and couldn't help the vindictive satisfaction she felt, "bring senpai into this."

When Orochimaru subsided, Jiraiya picked up his interrogation of her methods.

"Have you used it before?" he demanded, "Do you know if it's safe?"

Sakura shrugged as she tried to concentrate on tracing the path of her chakra within the seal's network. "Not really. I tested it on the Uchiha before the fight. But they're still alive, aren't they? So I'm pretty sure it's safe."

There was a moment of stunned silence.

"Haruno," Tsunade's voice was sharp, but also that funny mix of exasperated and disbelieving she tended to use when talking to her and Shikamaru, "what do you mean you used it on the Uchiha?"

Sakura knew she should probably be a little more alarmed, but the blank mask she'd forced over her face seemed to have extended to her thoughts and emotions. She couldn't feel the panic, the fear, the pain she felt at Genma's exploitation of her trust in him.

It was all...blank.

Her thoughts were quiet for once. There was only the task.

"I thought the Uchiha would be useful to have on our side during the fight." She said simply. "But if they'd escaped or sabotaged us, I would've been facing a demotion at best and a treason charge at worst. I wasn't about to risk all the work I've put in by trusting traitors."

"But you were willing to risk your Village?" Jiraiya asked, disbelief and an emotion Sakura couldn't quite name in her current state audible in his tone.

She frowned, struggling to find the words, but it seemed that she was silent for too long because Orochimaru started laughing.

Tsunade watched the girl get back to work, conflicted.

Did she feel bad for sending Shiranui, knowing the rosette wouldn't suspect anything amiss? A little. Orochimaru was, after all, responsible for her parents' death, for her senpai's fractured state of mind and hospitalisation, and the Uchiha's defection. That was without even mentioning all the reasons the general public had to detest her old teammate.

But seeing that seal on Orochimaru's chest? Hearing Jiraiya use the words 'slavery seal'? She needed answers.

There was also the fact that the girl was dangerous.

Not physically, because for all her trickery, the fact of the matter was that Haruno was limited by the size of her chakra coils, and even her prodigious control can't fully make up for her civilian parentage.

But politically?

There was far too much history, far too many secrets and laws and crimes trapped in the brain of a barely seventeen year old child to not be wary.

Tsunade was responsible for igniting that curiosity, she knew – if she hadn't sent her and the Nara to Mist, perhaps this could've been avoided. But the girl had taken her interest in politics and her relations with their allies much, much further and much more seriously than Tsunade had planned.

Bringing her in to look at Orochimaru's seal was both, convenience, and a test.

"It's a parasite." Haruno pronounced at last, her hand glowing medic-green that momentarily threw Tsunade before she focused on the girl's words instead. "It's wrapped around his main internal organs, leeches into his brain, and... I think it's corroding his chakra coils." She elaborated, and Tsunade froze. "He... with the rate of deterioration, he shouldn't be alive."

"It's why he developed Fushi Tensei." Jiraiya breathed, stunned and wide-eyed, having reached the same conclusion Tsunade had. "We all thought it was for immortality, but-" Jiraiya cut himself off, and a guilty expression settled on his face.

Tsunade knew what he was thinking – Jiraiya left the Village to teach the Ame brats, she left not long after Nawaki's death, but Orochimaru had stayed. And when the news of his betrayal, the extent of his apparent depravity had reached them, she knew neither she nor Jiraiya bothered to ask themselves whether that was all there was to it.

And now, to think that Danzo had driven that last nail into the coffin that tore the Legendary Three apart irreparably and they had had no clue...

Haruno dropping her hands back to her lap jerked Tsunade out of her guilt.

"Like I said earlier, it's destroying his internal organs and chakra coils, and I think part of the array around his brain is not unlike the Nidaime's seal for sleeper agents. It..." The girl trailed off. "It looks like it takes over and completely rewires his brain the moment a trigger word or a phrase is uttered. It sounds insane, but..."

There was a frown on Haruno's face that Tsunade had long ago learned to be wary off, and her hands lit up green once again. "Fuinjutsu is chakra, yes, it's ink and it's blood and it's runes and precise application, but it's also will. Whoever created this seal had enough willpower to completely enslave a Sannin."

Tsunade exchanged a look with Jiraiya, and swallowed against the bile rising in her throat.

"How do we undo it?" she managed to choke out.

"Trying to unravel it could do more damage than good." Jiraiya pointed out, and Haruno nodded.

"Absorbing the leftover chakra from the seal might disable it." She suggested, and before she was even completely finished, Jiraiya had whipped out a notepad and pencil and began to sketch.

"Right, Haruno, dismissed." Tsunade said distractedly, almost stumbling over to kneel beside Jiraiya.

Sakura took one look at the three, sitting far closer than half a lifetime of animosity could justify, and took a step back. Then another.

Something in her mind was fracturing, and there were dark spots dancing at the edges of her vision.

She looked within herself, found not the usual pulse of familiar, bright, warm chakra, but the cooler, darker one that reminded