Chapter Twelve

P.O.V. Sakura Haruno

"You're just the Commander of-"

"I thought I already told you-" I smiled tilting my head to the side; "-I am not a Commander anymore."

"The-Then why are you here?"

"Tsunade called in a favor, when you have the Reaper on speed dial it would be smart to delegate most of the dirty work onto a person who has no ties to any village."

"Dirty work?"

"Mhm." I nodded with a growing smile, "See-" I said leaning forward, "-your village knows the Leaf has captured you. They know you have been compromised and they seem to have one of the Leaf shinobi held hostage and they want to trade you for him."

"Why are you here for that?" Hanare breathed not getting the big picture.

"Mm, sweetie I am not here for the switching of hostages. Frankly I don't really give a damn, all I want to do right now is gut you where you sit, then stuff you like a scarecrow and leave you at the Lock Village's front door as a message to not fuck with the Leaf Village but hey-" I leaned back in my seat. "-I am here by Tsunade's request so we can't have too much fun."

"You-You wouldn't really-"

"Oh, I would, and I have. Why do you think no one wants to willingly fuck with the Waterfall Village?" I asked tilting my head, "Unlike Tsunade, I never allowed anyone to mess with my soldiers and if they did-" I chuckled; "-I made it rain down on them like it was the fucking fourth of July."

I turned my head to look at the mirror, waiting to see if Tsunade wouldn't object to my little date with Hanare but there was a knock on the mirror making me huff.

"Looks like you're in luck-" I muttered to myself "-she is such a buzz kill-" as I leaned on the table with my arms, Hanare held a questionable look on her face as she watched me. "-I am going to give you two options."

"Huh?" She blinked.

"The first option would be the good old boring easy way; you simply tell me why you crashed at this village and what you discovered-" Hanare cut me off:

"Like I have told that deranged psychopath a hundred times-!" Hanare's eyes filled with tears, "-I moved to this village to have a better life!" I studied her reaction, just a moment ago she appeared to be lifeless like she was blocking out everything around her and now here she sat playing a victim card, interesting.

"Or-" I continued, "-my favorite option number two and I make you talk."

"I have nothing to say, I love this village and all the people I have made into my friends. Just go talk to Kakashi and he will tell you-"

"Oh, don't worry-" I said, "-we will be getting to him, he will have his turn to talk."

"Wh-What?" Hanare gasped, "You-You're going to do this to him!?"

"If you don't talk than yes."

"How-How could you!? You were with him; you were engaged to-"

"Is that supposed to make me feel melancholic or...?" I trailed off,

"Your heartless!"

"And that's why I am called the Reaper." I grinned, "Now pick an option or I can simply do this the easy way."

"The easy way?" Hanare blinked, "But this is the easy way."

"Last chance." I said as I rose from the metal folding chair, "Once you've picked, there is no going back."

"What are you-" Hanare shook her head confused, but I didn't let her get out the rest of her sentence. I didn't care what she had to say unless it had to do with the leaf village and what information she plagiarized, I lifted my leg kicking her chair forcing her to fly backwards until she crashed into the wall, cracking pieces of stone around her.

"I don't like wasting my time." I said, carelessly walking over. I used my foot to pull her slightly away from the wall. "Think about what your about to agree to-" I said, "-do you really want to be locked inside a room with the Reaper alone?"

"I already told you-!" Hanare cried, "-I have nothing to tell you!?" I sighed, using my foot to tip her chair back. Hanare gasped at the feeling of falling but was quickly interrupted by being caught by the rock wall.

"Going once." I said turning to the large table pushed against the left wall of the room, I walked over and picked up a dirty gray stained towel.

"I did nothing wrong!" Hanare pleaded.

"Going twice." I replied as I walked back to her, quickly dropping the towel over her face.

"Go ask Kakashi, he will vogue for me-" Hanare muffled through the granite material, I summed a simple water jutsu, letting it pour down from the ceiling like an unpleasant shower and dump onto Hanare, I took steps back in order to not get wet.

I looked around after two minutes of the water pouring, I looked at my phone quickly texting Hinata back before stopping the jutsu from completely drowning Hanare, who gasped for air once I removed the wet towel, her long dull green hair clung to her face and neck.

"Your insane!"

"Only on Tuesdays." I replied. "Are you ready to talk?"

"How many times do I-!?" I cut Hanare off, roughly plopping down the towel back over her face as I reactivated my water jutsu, letting it drench Hanare as I simulated the drowning effect.

"I can do this all day." I called over the loud roar of water.

----

After an hour, Hanare still hadn't broken. I decided to retired waterboarding for the moment. I discarded the wet towel onto the floor, dropping Hanare on all four legs she desperately gasped out sucking in air into her wet lungs as if she has never breathed a breath of dry air in her entire life.

"You-You must be really enjoying this." Hanare spat as I dragged her back to sit at the table, I raised an eyebrow seeing the cookie cutter attitude was beginning to crack.

"Oh yes-" I said, "-this is how I pictured spending my Wednesday night. Not spending time with friends or catching up on the latest TV shows, this is what I pictured I would be doing."

I pushed Hanare so close to the table I could hear she was already having trouble taking in dagger breaths. As a yawn bloomed inside my lips, I picked up a sharp looking blade. After an hour inside this room with Hanare I was beginning to understand what type of training she was skilled with.

Much like how Kaguya trained me, the answer to enduring rounds of torture was just really mind over matter. Hanare was able to block out any physical pain and focused all her energy on her mental thinking which is truly the most annoying trait possible. It didn't matter how many times I drew my blade across her fair skin, it wouldn't affect her in the ways I needed it too.

So, to counter this I was going to have to not only torture her physically but now I had to get inside her mind and trick her into not knowing what was real and what was fabricated. This would be easy if I didn't get a bitch of a migraine every time, I used my freaking eyes.

I quickly thought back to the River and Sand Villages, I just realized I didn't get a headache when I used my eyes or seals traveling between their villages. I scratched my chin as I sat down across from Hanare.

It hurt to activate my Christmas wreath eyes, it almost felt like I was staring at the sun while dripping lemon juice into my bare eyes, but I pulled them up none the less. I looked up at Hanare only to feel the wind get knocked out of my chest.

I stared at Hanare; a light-colored cloud floated around her as I saw a bright thread running off into the distance. My stomach soured as I turned from staring at the thread and towards her.

"You?" I breathed; my eyebrows furrowed together as all the twisted pieces finally fell into their place. Hanare darkly smiled as her eyes frosted over, she didn't look like the sweet woman Itachi talked about and the one I met in the hallway.

I jumped from sitting, the metal chair flew backwards onto its side as I quickly reach round the table drawing my fist back I punched Hanare, her head went flying sideways as I gripped her hair my eyes burned against her image as I brought her face to look into my eyes.

"Took you long enough." Hanare sneered at me, I tightened my grip on her hair before slamming her head down against the metal table, I heard the crunch of her nose, her blood dripped onto the shiny surface, but I didn't care. I reached out and plucked away the thread that was tied to Hanare.

"Find me Kakashi!" I yelled at the mirror, Hanare darkly laughed. Blood dripped down her busted lip and nose as she smiled up at me.

"You made it such a bitch to keep him in line-" My fist colliding with her face shut her up, I stormed from the interrogation room, quickly slamming the door shut as my mind raced miles a second.

"No one goes in or out of this room." I pointed to the guard on standby who quickly nodded. "I will be the one to rip your heart out if Hanare moves so much as a fucking inch!"

"Ye-Yes ma'am." The guard shook in his shoes.

"Sakura!?" Tsunade ran out into the hallway with Itachi tightly on her heels. "What in the world-!?"

"I need to find Kakashi." I sputtered out through the maze of thoughts clogging my brain, my feet already running on their own through the dark halls.

"Sakura, wait-!?" Tsunade called after me as she followed me up to the ground floor, "-will you tell me what the hell-"

"I didn't see it." I breathed shaking my head as I looked around the village trying to scan for his chakra, the pain inside my head slowly began to clear and evaporate.

"What?" Itachi asked, "See what?"

"My seal was jacked from returning-" I shook my head, spotting his chakra in the distance I took off into a sprint before wrapping air around my body.

"Sakura!?" Were the last words I heard before dropping into Carver's apartment, I gazed around seeing Carver and Raiden's confused expressions as they sat on his couch, looking like they were bracing for the sky to come collapsing down.

"Ok...?" Carver said relaxing seeing it was just me, "Why not fuck up my apartment with your wind, that's cool." I ignored him, moving from his apartment I banged on Kakashi's front door, a sour feeling settled inside my lower stomach.

Carver, Raiden and Naruto all came out into the hallway hearing my thunderous commotion.

"Sakura?" Naruto called over my knocking, "Hey, what were you called in for?" He wondered but I ignored him as I continued to bang on Kakashi's door waiting for him to answer, I needed him to pull open this door and I had to see his masked face.

"She was called in?" Carver asked from behind me.

"Yeah." Naruto answered.

"Fuck this." I cursed feeling my chest tighten, feeling like a rocks has been stacked on top of my esophagus. I almost felt like I couldn't breathe, I took two steps back and kicked the door down with joyful ease.

"Whoa!?" Carver and Raiden shouted over the crunching sound of wood caving in.

"What in the frosty hell!?" Raiden gasped as I stepped into the apartment.

"Sakura, I know you have been pissed at him, but this is a whole new level!" Carver called, climbing over the broken pieces of wood.

"Yeah-" Raiden agreed, "-just cause he didn't text you back, doesn't mean you can kick the man's door down!"

"This is a red flag." Carver nodded, "We should have seen this, we should have been better friends-" I ignored their comments, running into his bedroom I finally laid my eyes on him.

"Call Tsunade!" I screamed, rushing to Kakashi's side as he laid on his bedroom floor uncontrollably convulsing.

"What did you say Sakura-what the fuck!?" Carver yelled as I lifted Kakashi to lay on his side.

"Call fucking Tsunade!" I screamed again, tears pressing against my eyes as I shook my head. My brain clamed up, I found myself clueless on what I was supposed to do next.

"They don't need to." Tsunade's hasty voice graced me as she moved to Kakashi's side across from where I had collapsed. "Sakura what happened?" Tsunade asked, I could only shake my head as more tears pressed to be freed. "Hey-" Tsunade touched the side of my face, "-how did you know to check on him, what caused this?"

"I didn't know." I breathed; my eyes filled to their brims with unwanted tears.

"You didn't know what?"

"She had a jutsu on him." I blinked; the tears fell down my face landing on his black mask.

"Who had a jutsu on him, what are you--Hanare?" Tsunade sucked in a cold breath,

"I released it-" I shook my head, staring down at Kakashi as he seized on the floor beside me. "-when I did, I got this feeling that he..." I wanted to reach out and hold him, tell him that everything was going to be fine but the glassy distant look in his eye told me he wasn't here inside this room with me right now.

"He is going to be fine." Tsunade touched my shoulder, "After his episode is over, we will get him to the hospital and run tests, ok?" I answered with a nod. "Carver, Raiden, get ready to lift Kakashi and run him as fast as you can to the hospital." Tsunade ordered,

"What is wrong with him!?" Naruto asked, sounding almost to be in pain.

"Right now-" Tsunade's voice was strong and stable, "-we need to focus on getting him help, we will ask the questions after he is in the clear, understand?"

"Yes." Naruto nodded with Carver and Raiden.

----

Kakashi laid inside a clean hospital bed, I sat beside him running my fingers through his soft hair feeling numbed inside my chest. It had been three hours since Kakashi had his seizure, he hasn't woken up since then. Carver and Raiden got him to the hospital in record time, and Tsunade made him Dr. Yu's main priority.

"Doesn't feel so good does it?" Carver smirked at my annoyed face. He leaned back in his chair his arms crossed over his chest. "Having to wait around for answers, wait to see if the person you love is going to be alright-"

"Really?" I asked, "Now is the time?" My voice was dry like Gaara's sand as I glared at Carver.

"We are just saying-" Raiden half smiled, "-stop almost dying because hospital's suck."

I looked up from staring at his masked face hearing the door to his private room open. Tsunade walked in, I glanced over at Naruto who appeared sickened as I braced to hear the worst.

"All the tests came back clear." Tsunade said, I breathed out a deep sigh of relief turning to look back at him.

"Now that we know this-" Itachi said standing beside Raiden and Hinata. "-can we please know what the fuck happened!?"

"Or how you knew he was in trouble?" Raiden added on.

"I..." I sighed, rubbing my tired face. "...when I first returned from the Reaper's control, I had these horrible headaches-"

"Mhm." Carver nodded.

"We remember." Tsunade agreed.

"-I had no control over my seal, when I used my eyes my head would feel like it was cracking open and so I didn't think anything of it when I came here."

"Well what changed?" Naruto asked as Hinata moved to comfortingly rubbed his back. My whole being wished for Kakashi to be standing behind me, softly rubbing circles on my back as leaned forward in this hard chair.

"I was in the interrogation room with Hanare-"

"Excuse me-" Carver held his arm up, "-what?"

"Why would you put that poor girl in-!?" Raiden went to defend a sweet girl that didn't exist.

"Hanare is a spy-" Tsunade quickly filled them in, "-for the Lock Village. Sakura was called in to try and break her because Inoichi couldn't."

"Well shit." Raiden breathed out rubbing his face, "This is some next level fuckery." He joked.

"I didn't plan on trying to use my eyes with Hanare because when I got here, I had another bitch of a migraine and I chopped it up to over using my seals but I soon realized after working her over, that Hanare couldn't be broken with simple physical pain. I would need to get inside her head so when I got my eyes to work-"

"You saw she had a jutsu active?" Raiden guessed.

"I did, I also realized that when I transport to the River or to the Sand village, I didn't get a migraine. It is only when I came here is when I was in pain."

"Why?" Hinata asked,

"Because of Hanare; my seals that I had placed on all of you, when I died it left a residue that I didn't know about. It acted as a protective barrier on Kakashi against Hanare's jutsu, that's why I had such terrible migraines because the closer I got to her or to Kakashi the more I felt her jutsu being used."

"So, we all still have like a permanent seal on us?" Naruto asked,

"From what I can tell, yes."

"And it was trying to signal to you, 'hey something ain't right here'?" Raiden guessed, I nodded looking back at Kakashi.

"I should have known something wasn't right." I shook my head.

"This is not on you." Tsunade said, "If anything this situation would be on all of us, we allowed Hanare into the village, we cleared her to live here and we told you she was good for him..."

"What kind of jutsu was she using anyway?" Carver asked.

"A cousin of the mind control technique." I answered,

"From my sharingan?" Itachi questioned.

"Yeah, how she got her hands on it I don't know-" I said.

"So, she controls Kakashi to what-?" Carver shrugged, "-leak information about our village?"

"Not quite." I answered, "She altered his memory and perception of reality."

"And in normal terms-" Raiden said, "-what the hell does all that mean?"

"It means-" I breathed, "-from the quick peak I had before cutting the jutsu off, she changed his reality. She made him fully believe she was the love of his life-"

"Hanare made Kakashi believe she, was you?" Raiden scoffed sounding appalled.

"In a sense." I muttered, "She broke his world into two different realities, one where I had died and the other where I was still living, she would replace me in his mind and that's how she did it."

"No wonder she kept him away from all of us." Itachi grinned his teeth together,

"And why he went missing from the public eye for months." Carver shook his head,

"We really dropped the ball on this one." Raiden held pained eyes as he looked at Kakashi.

"Yeah." Hinata agreed.

"When Kakashi wakes up-" Naruto mumbled, "-what will happen?"

"Yeah." Rained agreed wanting to know, "Will he be like his old self or...?"

"I don't know." I answered honestly as I gazed at him, I wanted to believe when he awoke, he would be the Kakashi I knew, he would still love me but... "I don't know how much the jutsu affected him, or if he really did care for Hanare."

"No way!" Naruto shook his head,

"When you returned-" Carver leaned forward, his elbows rested on his knees. "-that was when he really became shut in with that girl. You being around must have been messing with the jutsu which is why you were in so much pain and why Hanare basically locked him away."

"Possibly." I sighed,

"We won't know until he wakes up--Sakura where are you going?" Tsunade asked as I stood from the chair, I felt the sinister smile crept onto my face. Naruto took a step back as his face twisted, most likely recalling our encounter inside the waterfall village when Kaguya stole my memory.

"I have a date." I grinned at Tsunade,

"I don't think you being alone with Hanare is a good idea right now." Itachi commented, blocking me from the door.

"Oh, I wasn't asking." I breathed, "Move, before I move you."

"Sakura, your angry."

"No-" I breathed turning towards Tsunade "-I'm fucking infuriated, you called me here for a job now let me fucking do it." Tsunade closed her eyes for a moment before nodding.

"I trust you." Tsunade said,

"Wh-What!?" Itachi gasped, looking around the room holding his arms out.

"Move Itachi." Tsunade ordered,

"But-" Itachi went to argue.

"Are you really going to question my authority?" Tsunade challenged, "You are the main reason none of us battened an eye towards Hanare and her relationship with Kakashi, you gave her the green light because why-?" Tsunade stepped closer, "-did you simply rush your judgement and seen what you wanted to see so you could get Sakura over Kakashi so you could move-"

"No!" Itachi rose his voice, cutting Tsunade off. "I...I really thought she was..." Itachi looked away appearing to be ashamed.

I felt bad for him but I didn't have the time to care about his feelings or have the the time to comfort a friend. I turned on my heel spinning around, taking one last look at Kakashi as I exited the room.

Fire ignited inside my body, threatening to spill over and engulf my being, and I welcomed the sensation with wide open arms as marching my way back down the tunnels where my new chew toy was being kept.