They traveled for several days into the heart of the Land of Fire. The Hidden Village was surrounded by leaves but the Fire Daimyo's now fortified compound rest at the slope of a sprawling, long extinct, shield volcano. The land that surrounded it was flat and rocky with clumps of scraggly yellow grass as the only vegetation. The remnants of long dried up farms and abandoned houses were the only reminder that people once lived here. Now wind howled through their skeletal frames and dust swirled in the air.

She thought about approaching the Hunters, her new so called team. But they all remained mostly silent and only whispered among themselves, and remained extremely formal with her. Everything was "yes, sir", "no,sir" which she did not mind, but it was a little weird considering she was half their age. So Sakura remained silent as well and contemplated on the irony that accompanied the passage of time.

Since the road to the castle was long, flat, and straightforward, the guards saw them coming miles and miles away. There was an envoy waiting for us outside the gates. They stood a line of heavy armed samurai with shinobi clad in all black perched atop the walls like gargoyles.

"Sakura Haruno! We've been expecting you and your Hunters. You're a few days behind." The Adviser that stood quite apart from the rest. His face wasn't hidden, or body obscured by armor. Sakura wondered if they realized they really weren't the target they thought they were, that if any place needed guarding, it was Konoha.

Before Sakura could get a word in, a samurai stepped forward and promptly started to search her. The other Hunters were left alone, she was left to turn in the few shabby kunai she had stashed with her.

"I didn't know I was expected." Sakura responded gruffly and made a show of fixing her disheveled cloak.

"Let's get going." He responded curtly. The front gates were opened barely an inch to pass through. We filed in single line to greet the even more numerous guards on the other side. At this point, it was getting to be a little much, she thought.

The road to the steps had to slope down with the terrain. The flight of stairs extended upward, nearly a thousand steps to the wide set palace. With the blood red sun against the orange and yellow haze that was the sky, Sakura felt the harshness of reality, how easily she could have mistaken her previous hallucinations to be real. What set them apart was that now, there was nothing but white noise.

The shadows cast inside the palace were nearly pitch black. Inside, the windows were drawn shut with only ribbons of light to illuminate the corners. A seemingly endless set of doorways led to where the Fire Daimyo sat in his golden robes. Those of the court were still, as if they had been staged, waiting for them to arrive.

"Step forward, Haruno. I want to see the face of the little girl who murdered Yusei, conspired to kill Danzo, and let's not forget, walked out on her own sensei." The Daiymo remained sitting cross legged on his throne. He was enveloped in layers of fine silk and glistening pearls woven into the fabric. Two fully armed Samurai sat still next to him in candy colored red plates of armor. Only their eyes were visible, their beetle black eyes that never left her face.

"...Which one?" She asked after a brief pause. The other Hunters all fanned out behind her, their creeping motion completely silent until they were each individually visible.

"I can see why the Godaime Hokage still holds you in favor." The Daimyo gave a crinkly smile, but it did not reach his eyes.

"Forgive me, my lord, but I can not accept your appointment as the new leader for this group. I was decommissioned as a shinobi by the Konoha council and I am only to be active as a medic in case of-"

"An emergency!? I'm not sure if you noticed but we are in the midst of a very huge emergency. Konoha is in my domain. It's wishes are my wishes and its enemies are my enemies. You took an oath. The Hunters that compromised his unit are but a fraction from the shinobi that you see here. Even though his murder was a great weight upon my conscious there is still work to be done until peace and security is restored." The Daimyo began to fan himself vigorously as his speech must have riled him up.

"I see. Will the Hokage know of your decision?" Sakura asked and had to drop her eye contact. The closest thing she could describe what came over her was despair. She had to hold her breath to keep from retching a sob.

"She will be informed. Just so you know, if you show any signs of treason or disloyalty, the Hunters behind you will not hesitate to terminate you. We have eyes and ears in many places. We will know." He stared her down, as if just his gaze could rip her apart. A growing sense of outrage began to churn within her, if he did not have an army surrounding him, she would have just flicked his face inward.

"Understood." She replied, swallowing down her pride and emotion.

"I am pleased that you are being so reasonable. I felt you would be eager to get back into action after being sidelined again and again. My advisers will meet with you and your team shortly to discuss what you have missed and what needs to be done. You are all dismissed." The Daimyo waved them away with a brisk impatient motion. of us made a single noise as we filed back out of the room. Not a single sound at all.

She gave a deep head nod with a murmur of thanks as the rustling of many cloaks followed behind her.

The twelve feet tall iron doors closed behind them with a resounding echo.