NB: Wow! I haven't updated in 375 days!!! So sorry for such a LONG wait! I'm sure most of you were seething in anger as you counted the days. I'll elaborate the explanation on my profile.

Besides my extremely busy school life in both ways, I made some "executive" decisions on whether I should restart the story from scratch or re-edit my posted chpts due to the introduction of 2 new Resistance series games. By Crazy-Silly-Me's suggestion, I chose the latter. This fic will remain to be based on the first game. If I didn't, this story would never finish!

I reedited the stuff I either thought were cliche or lame. I also changed or added scenes due to my storyline revision based on some new ideas that I saw from the 2 new games. So I put my updating on the sidelines and focused on major scenes and plot revisions. So once again I'm sorry for such a LONG wait! The re-revisions are crucial because they reflect the outcome of this updated chpt.

Get to the point, you say? Well, this chpt would make alot more sense if you reread chpt2, 3 and 5. Why? Because it is this chpt reveals a crucial piece of the puzzle involving Sakura and Kakashi! I hope that spurred your interest to read more! Other chpts except the prologue and chpt6 also have some re-revisions. You could read them too if you're interested but the 3 chpts I listed are the most important.

Standard disclaimers applied

The Perfect Soldier

The halls of this once happy and peaceful home were now somber and cold.

The only living object in this home was an 18-year old girl wearing a black dress, with black flats and stockings, sitting in her cold and lonely bedroom. The pink-haired girl bit her lower lip to keep her sobs and tears under control as she tried to finish writing a letter at her desk.

But whenever the pink-haired girl briefly glanced at the photo of the boy whom she was writing to, she just couldn't restrain her tears anymore. When she wrote the final – unthinkable – sentence, Sakura broke down and cried her already tormented and broken heart out.

"No! I-I can't do this to him! I can't!"

The pink-haired girl gripped the edge of her desk, clinging on to whatever amount of sanity she had left as the sounds of her cries and sobs echoed across the halls of her eerily silent home. The girl wrapped her arms around her head and cried on her already-wet forearms, pushing that unhappy letter by the side.

"I'm a horrible person," she sniffed in self-loathing as she looked upon the folded letter on the edge of her desk.

Sakura turned her eyes to look outside the window instead of her dark cold room. But as she saw the picture of her family that was once here by her side, the heavier her heart became. It reminded her of why and what she must do what she has to do. Sakura turned back towards the first picture once more with tears flowing across her face. The picture was of her and the only person left that was important to her.

"I have no choice, Sasuke-kun. I have to do this…for your sake."

Sakura picked up the picture and reminisced. It was when she and Sasuke last saw each other a few months ago. As Sakura continued to look deep into Sasuke's onyx orbs, her tears slowly lessened. Reason sank back into her fragile heart once more as she whispered.

"I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun."

Taking a deep breath, Sakura shut her eyes as she slowly placed the picture frame face down on top of her desk with her nerveless fingers, leaving the picture of her family face up on the desk. Holding on to her resolve and the letter with a heavy heart, the pink-haired girl left her personal sanctuary. Sakura took a key and locked her bedroom she had used for 18 years, sealing off this physical part of her life. Once she discarded the key, Haruno Sakura robotically exited her house for one last time as she proceeded to her father's funeral.

Realization

Sakura slowly woke up with a massive migrane that was similar to somebody drilling screws into her skull without sedatives. Sakura clutched her head in pain and closed her eyelids shut from the blaring bright hospital lights. Sakura's blurry line of vision could barely make out a figure looking down upon her. But she was so lightheaded she could barely focus on the figure above her.

"You're awake, Sakura?"

Despite the pain Sakura recognized the strict motherly voice.

"Yuuhi-sensei?" she croaked.

Kurenai said nothing but handed out a few pills to Sakura. "You probably need the painkillers, as usual," Kurenai paused as she watched Sakura dizzily sat up and swallowed the pills without hesitation. She noticed Sakura's cheeks were wet with cold tears.

"How's your headache?" Kurenai asked casually.

She turned her face towards the rain-splattered window, blankly staring at the autumn storm outside which reflected everything that has happened in her life. Sakura plopped back down on her bed, refusing to answer her former teacher.

"I'm assuming it's bad, considering you had pneumonia and had been unconscious for three days straight."

A frown creased on Sakura's lips, still looking at the dreadful scene outside. "So I'm not dead?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

It sounded almost sarcastic but Kurenai's ruby eyes narrowed when she saw the look of disappointment on her student's face, like Sakura had wanted to be dead. "I said 'unfortunately' because you wouldn't have so much on your plate if you were dead."

Sakura looked confusedly at her instructor. Kurenai rubbed her forehead.

"Somehow not only did you get the military involved, but you also got Root and the government involved over this. After you're fully recovered you will be sent for questioning. That's the plan, anyway."

"What about the team?"

Kurenai shrugged, "I haven't been introduced to them yet so I don't know what they're planning – I guess the captain felt such idea as meaningless. Either way they're involved in this case even if your contract with them is terminated."

It was when Sakura heard Kurenai's last word did she felt this strange sinking feeling spread all over her frail form as Kurenai's words keep repeating themselves like a broken record. Sakura wasn't sure why that suddenly weighed her down like a mountain of bricks, but the thought of how this team she worked so hard for would probably abandon her stung. It stung because it reminded her why they would do such a thing….

It reminded her that disastrous mission she herself had caused…

That reminded her how her selfishness resulted in the death of an innocent man…

…which reminded her of the humiliation she had caused upon so many people….

As each piece of realization sank in, Sakura felt sicker than before. As she painfully swallowed each piece of unwanted reality, Sakura ultimately realized that she had let everybody down. She failed her mission. Sakura was too preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn't even register the water coming out from the corner of her eye.

After a long suffocating silence, Sakura whispered:

"Yuuhi-sensei – may I ask for a favor?"

Meanwhile on the first floor of the military hospital, Kakashi is trying to negotiate with the hospital wards in vain.

"I'm sincerely sorry, Captain Hatake, but when combat medics are in intensive care no one is allowed to see them," a twig-thin nurse spoke apologetically towards the man.

"Then could you at least inform me the current status of her condition?" he snarled towards the disinterested desk nurse. Kakashi never hold grudges on women, but this nurse is probably the most unattractive woman he'd ever met. Not only was she rude, she wasn't the most appealing person to look at.

The nurse turned to him once again, this time with a very irritated look on her pale face. "I'm sorry sir but only the proper authorities have such access."

Kakashi's eye narrowed when the nurse returned to her desk work. Kakashi yanked the computer plug out of the socket, destroying the now-infuriated nurse's unsaved documents.

"What the HELL is your problem!"

"You obviously made those rules up just to get rid of me! Why can't I see my own team member?"

The nurse's menacing glare could almost burn a hole on a wall, "I will permanently send you to a hospital if you don't leave this instant!!"

Knowing this was a meaningless battle, Kakashi stormed outside to the smoking area where his subordinates quietly waited for over 2 hours today. Like the past 3 days they stood near the hospital entrance like cold statues and the air around them had this thick and almost visible tension.

"Any luck, Kakashi-sensei?"

Thankfully for the two silent types of the group, Naruto always did the talking for them. But to their disappointment, Kakashi shook his head. Venting out his frustration, Naruto punched a nearby beer vending machine.

"Why is this happening? We just wanna know if she's ok!"

While Naruto used physical means to vent his anger, Sasuke and Sai felt no other reason to wait and stay here any longer. They were leaving their separate ways until Kakashi informed them vital information.

"The military hospital is shielding her from us. The KMH staff said no one is allowed to see her. But then they said that the 'proper authorities' could acquire information on her health. This means while we are barred from seeing Sakura, the KMH higher ups and ROOT could interact with her with no strings attached."

The three young men immediately paused. Outrage, curiosity, confusion, and a myriad of reactions were written all over their faces as new questions began to emerge once they heard this.

"But why would ROOT do such a thing?"

Surprisingly, it was Sai who answered Naruto's question.

"Probably because of the mission's failure was caused by one of their own, ROOT's higher-ups are trying to cover-up something so they could elude Tsunade and the military investigators. Danzo is a conniving little old man, after all."

"And I have a hunch," Kakashi added, "that Sakura is not even in the ICU from the beginning and is placed somewhere else in the hospital."

Kakashi paused for a moment before turning to Sasuke, who had been silent on this whole issue. In fact, Sasuke hadn't spoken a word since he carried Sakura into the hospital a few days ago. Though Sasuke had hid it well, there was a glint of turmoil in his cold black eyes.

"Sasuke, when you found Sakura, did you see any visible wounds or anything else that would seem life-threatening? Was she harmed by someone?"

Sasuke didn't respond to Kakashi's interrogation. Sasuke had tried repressing the moment he frantically carried Sakura to the hospital ever since it occurred. But deep down he knew he had to eventually confront his emotions. Sasuke had to filter out the emotions he had felt and only gather the objective details from that experience. Sasuke closed his eyes as he revisited the painful memory.

The memory of the relentless rain, the wrath of lightning, the mournful wailing of billowing wind, the huge brown puddles, and treading through the muddy earth.

The memory of the once girl of his childhood lay lifeless on top of her family's stone, her body exposed to the malevolent storm. Her skin was dangerously pale white, that her once vibrant pink hair now seemed purplish in the dark.

…The memory of him holding the frail girl tightly in his arms as he carried her to the hospital-

It was here when Sasuke noticed the things he didn't at that moment of time. She was so fragile…yet there were no signs of struggle around the area where she was found. When he frantically carried Sakura to KMH, there were no traces of blood on him or on her body. Sure it has been raining for the past week and the rain could've washed off the blood away, the blood had to be washed away to somewhere else, which Sasuke did not find and which could mean she had little or no wounds…

Sasuke turned to Kakashi with a grim look of realization in his eyes.

"No. There was no cover up, the way I saw it. Sakura was at the gravesite to die on her own accord. It was no coincidence she was unconscious on her family's gravestone."

"Why would she do that?!"

Sasuke couldn't unclench his fists as he self-reflect on his own involvement in this entire fiasco.

"Because," Sasuke gritted his teeth, "we blamed her for the failure and she took the blame on herself. We brought her here!"

There was brief period of uncomfortable silence until Sasuke once again spoke.

"I don't care. I'm going in to find her."

"I'm coming too. I'm sick of standing here waiting! Who knows what those people are trying to do to her."

Sasuke smirked for the first time when he heard Kakashi gave a sigh of resignation. He's coming along with him and Naruto. Only Sai remained unconvinced.

"But how are we going to see Haruno? If it's true that ROOT did not want us here, we might be trespassing."

If Sasuke's smirk wasn't creepy enough, Naruto's was even creepier. Naruto's grin could make a Cheshire cat and a red fox shudder, "We're not going to 'see' her. We're just…'dropping by'."

When Sai gave no reply but his usual blank smile, everybody knew everyone was on board with this "mission."

"Then let's do it!"

The cranky nurse was ferociously retyping her documents when-

"Help me, beautiful lady!"

A thoroughly soaked man with blonde hair hurled himself onto her front desk, making her desk as wet and muddy as he was. In normal circumstances, she would've exploded in wrathful anger by now. But when the soaked – not to mention well-built – young man fell before her feet and called her "beautiful," it's no surprise all rationality fell out of the window.

"Are you alright, sir?!"

"Oh beautiful nurse! It hurts!"

After all, with her extremely thin stature, her extremely pale complexion, the superfluous makeup and mascara on her face and eyes, and her wild hair bun, this woman looked like an unentertaining, unattractive, anorexic clown. Being called "beautiful" twice by an attractive – even when covered in mud and soaked from head to toe – man was the greatest gift to her from God.

"It's alright; I'm here to help you. Where does your body hurt?"

As the nurse tried to find the source of the problem, the blonde man gasped in pain and reflexively clung to the hideous woman, earning a faint blush on her face.

"Ow! I don't know! Oh it hurts so bad!"

"Don't worry! I'll call someone from upstairs to take care of you-"

To her surprise and pleasure, he clung to her even tighter than before, earning a dark red hue on her face that could be seen through the horrendous makeup.

"No please! Don't leave me, nurse!"

As the blonde-haired man continue to writhe on the floor in "pain," Sasuke and Sai stealthily passed the front entrance. As she continued to occupy herself with caring for the "sick" man, the two dark haired men quietly pass through the lobby and entered the back of the hospital.

"Who would've thought that dickhead was such a good actor?" Sai thought out loud as they snuck passed the security cameras.

"Naruto is a dumbass but that doesn't mean he's dumb with distracting the enemy," Sasuke rubbed his temple in embarrassment at Naruto's supposedly unconvincing act.

Once the coast is clear, they entered a supply room and put on medical masks to disguise themselves. After they put on their disguises, Sai infiltrated the security room across the supply room in order to control the security cameras.

Meanwhile Sasuke waited for the signal to proceed further. Sasuke then felt his phone vibrate. Sai texted Sasuke the signal. While Sai stay in the central security system, Sasuke dashed towards the backstairs to find Sakura on his own. Sasuke knew this would be a challenge, considering how big the hospital is. But that mattered little to him.

All that mattered was find Sakura and sort out the mess he made between the two of them. It was when Sakura was taken away from his arms when he arrived at KMH did he realized how genuinely selfless she was. It wasn't a command or a programmed function in her to put him first before her own obstacles; it was from her own free will to protect him. It was cruel and unfair of him to be so selfish towards her in return.

"Wait for me, Sakura. I'm coming."

Kakashi climbed up to the trees for slightly higher viewpoint, with his eye patch removed. With his transplanted "eye," Kakashi's role as reconnaissance and scouting is very useful, especially for this "mission." His red eye scanned through the curtained windows, some concrete walls, and some of the occupants of the building.

Sasuke sent Kakashi a message from his cell.

"Where should we start Kakashi."

"Check only the private rooms. Being a female, she wouldn't be cohabitating with the men of the military so she must be isolated somewhere."

"Think she's in the ICU like the hospital said?"

Kakashi start by looking at the top floors, which the ICU should be located in, if his memory was correct. Since the accident involving his eye transplant, Kakashi has never been in the hospital wards.

"I don't see her. She must either be beyond 20 meters away from the windows…or she's not on that floor. Check the lower floors"

Thankfully for Kakashi's "eye," it helped Sasuke narrowed down the list of floors and rooms he would've needed to check. As Kakashi scanned the infirmary wards on the lower floors, Kakashi spotted the silhouette of a woman…..

…A woman that made the blood in his veins grow cold and thin. Kakashi's mask could not conceal the look of shock on his face, like he just saw a horrifying ghost of someone he knew and wanted to forget. His whole body almost completely turned numb seeing this woman before his very eyes. Had it not been his phone's vibrate, Kakashi would've fallen off the tree and into the soggy earth.

"No…that's impossible!! How could this be?! She's been dead for 8 years! There's just no way!"

Kakashi shook away the cold shiver lingering in him. He had to stay focused and not on such personal things. Kakashi checked his messages. The recent one was an urgent one from Sai:

"Uchiha - Danzo and his lackeys are heading your way."

Kurenai brought Danzo to Sakura's bedside, as part of Sakura's unknown request. Along with Danzo were two of his right hand men, who were failing in their effort of displaying their annoyance with this situation. Another man who accompanied Danzo is the head doctor of ROOT, Fukuda Hisao, who was cowering behind the 3 powerful men like he felt he didn't belong in such a place.

"Explain yourself, Medic. Why have you summoned us?"

Although Sakura was taught to also show her respects to Danzo's colleagues, Sakura paid no attention to the man's demand. Straight to business, Sakura turned to Danzo.

"How much would my assigned Team be involved in the investigation regarding the mission, Danzo-sama?"

Danzo's face revealed nothing but suspicion, "You are a member of that team. Since the failure was related to you, the team will also be under investigation. What are you planning, Haruno?"

Sakura paused, as if reconsidering on what she was about to say or ask next.

"I will submit my delayed report which will include my full confession of what had happened in the mission. Then, if I may, I request to be sent to the Basement, and have my memory refigured again to serve another team."

At this request, Kurenai and Dr. Fukuda were shocked with disbelief. First came disbelief then came sadness as they realized what Sakura was attempting to do. Danzo, however, was cold and contempt.

"You have no right to seek such demands from me, especially after you brought a virtual typhoon into this agency."

Sakura nodded apologetically, "I am well aware of the extent of the damage Konoha is facing from my actions and for that I am sincerely sorry for the troubles I've caused. Therefore to redeem myself for this agency and the team who entrusted me, I have a solution that will help ROOT, the military, and Konoha from the crisis my mission had started."

It was the last part of Sakura's declaration that sparked the interest of Danzo's two associates. Danzo appeared to remain unaffected by her but allowed Sakura to continue.

"Yuuhi-sensei had already informed me of my captain's report. The report resulted in an unnecessary tug-of-war between ROOT and the military. Therefore, I will make a full confession of everything that has happened the past few days that will explain my captain's unintentionally accusatory report. If Governor-General Tsunade-sama demanded bipartisanship, then I will be interviewed simultaneously by a representative of the military and this agency. In so doing, my captain's team will not get involved in multiple interrogations and political wrangling between the two factions."

At this point Danzo's two subordinates were pleased with the proposition – glad that all their baggage could fall upon the shoulders of one and not many. But Danzo was neither pleased nor displeased with the proposal, as if Sakura's fate meant nothing to him in the outcome.

"And your reason of going to the Basement is because…?"

Sakura bitterly swallowed. She had been on this path before, the path of no return. Her next decision will change her forever for better…or worse. But this time, Sakura knew many depend on her next course of action would be.

Sakura decided she had to walk the plank.

"I only made such requests because I burdened my superiors and all those who had entrusted me. My failure is unacceptable and therefore I believe I am no longer adequate to be a Combat Medic, at least to my current assigned team. If I could not rightfully and efficiently serve my assigned team, then I am incapable of serving other teams in the future in such state as I am now. Therefore it would be proper to reset my memory all over again-"

CRASH!!!!

Everyone was startled by a sudden ruckus from the supposedly empty hall outside the room. It sounded like something large had spontaneously collapsed and collided with several other objects nearby, toppling them as well. Unlike the rest of the befuddled audience, Danzo's eyes glared with deadly suspicion of the sudden noise outside this private room.

Something is amiss.

"Fukuda. The hallway."

The order was short, direct, and discreetly menacing. It always terrified the old doctor who wanted nothing to do with this organization. Without second thoughts, Fukuda hurried himself to the door and nervously looked out towards the quiet hall. Sweat began to form when he spotted an unexpected eavesdropper right next to him…..

It was a young man with spiky black hair and onyx-colored eyes. Fukuda assumed this young man is the culprit. The young man's palms were supporting him after his fall. He seemed to have fallen backwards out of shock from something and knocked down a metal trash bin behind him, the contents were still scattered on the floor untouched. It was when Sasuke saw this old man looking straight at him in surprise did Sasuke realized he was good as caught. Game over.

"Well?" Danzo asked from inside.

The doctor gulped and looked into the young man's frightened expression and then Danzo's suspicious glare. Sasuke held his breath and braced for the worst. Sasuke knew his fate rested upon what this old man's was going to do next....

The doctor gave Sasuke a brief wink, "It appears a janitor was cleaning something in the staff lavatory…." Sasuke mentally sighed with relief as Fukuda closed the door behind him.

Cleaning up the garbage on the floor, Sasuke soundlessly entered the staff restroom where the old man discreetly guided him to hide in until it was safe. While he could finally breathe in relief inside one of the stalls, he did not feel so well.

After hearing everything that transpired in that room, Sasuke felt the floor underneath him disappeared. Feeling lightheaded like he did earlier, Sasuke leaned back against the stall and dizzily sat down on the tiled floor. Everything he'd heard back there seemed almost surreal, like gory science fiction that leaves people nauseous.

As the disbelief began to fade away, Sasuke felt something he hadn't felt for a long time: grief. As he digested everything his childhood friend had said in that room, Sasuke felt even emptier than he had been when she unexpectedly disappeared from his life years ago. When the sickening reality began to sink in one grim conclusion, Sasuke had this feeling like someone he cared deeply for had died….

"All this time…Sakura never recognize me?"

Danzo said nothing in return to Sakura after she offered her explanation. Instead he and his two close aides were ready to leave this place. Sakura tried her best to hide her disappointment for being in such a pathetic situation she was in, worthlessly begging others for help. And all that effort only got her a "We'll wait and see how everything will turn out" from her boss before he left. Sakura hated being in such a condition as she was in right now.

Kurenai and Dr. Fukuda stayed by her bedside. Neither of them liked Sakura's decision to go to the Basement. Fukuda wiped the tears from his eyes and Kurenai clenched her fists in defeat and anger.

Doctor Fukuda tried to soothe the young woman, or perhaps talk her out of this idea.

"Why the Basement, Sakura? You know what else might happen down there besides refiguring your memories and conditioning your mind. Once you're down there, Those People could do absolutely anything to you."

Sakura didn't spoke a word but nodded. Sakura knew how much risk she is putting herself into. The old doctor solemnly left the room to leave the two women alone. He was the most renowned research physician in the nation. Yet he could do nothing to ease this young woman's personal troubles.

"Do you not know what your father's last command was?" Kurenai angrily tried to hold back her own tears.

Sakura sadly nodded, "To care and protect me with your life. I am the only thing that gives you purpose in this world."

"Then do you remember our deal? If you die, then I will leave with you. How would I explain this to your father when I see him in the afterlife?!" Kurenai could no longer hold her tears back. Even Kurenai hated how everything ended like this, being unable to fulfill Ikichi's final request.

This time Sakura knew she was doing something she hadn't done in a long time. Fresh tears rolled down her cold cheeks…and it no longer mattered if she was showing emotional weakness in front of people.

"You could tell my father that all of this was not your fault. It was mine. It was because I was selfish and tried to protect what mattered to me rather than my objective. My selfishness led to the death of an innocent man. And the person I tried to save wasn't even the person I was searching for all these years. I wasted that crucial moment during the mission to save a man who has no relation to me. Had I known this, I would've stayed with Tazuna-sama. But I was foolish, naïve, ignorant, and worst of all selfish. Kurenai-sensei…don't leave this world so soon. You still have someone who loves you…."

Sakura noticed Kurenai was no longer paying attention to her but to someone else by the door.

"We have never spoken to each other, young man," Fukuda whispered to Sasuke and quickly as he left the room as if this whole thing never happened. After all, he just aided an intruder into the hospital.

But Sasuke didn't care what the old man said. What really mattered was getting the truth from Sakura by himself. All of this must be some kind of sick joke. A surreal, horrible nightmare.

Sakura was about to ask why Sasuke was in a no-trespassing ward, until Kurenai confronted him by pinning him to a wall.

"Yuuhi-sensei! Please don't hurt him! He did nothing wrong!"

Sakura tried to get up but the medications made her too motion sick to even get up out of bed. Kurenai tied the subdued man with stitching wires. It wasn't fair how all the tragedies Sakura suffered because of trying to befriend this man.

"I may fear your father, Uchiha Sasuke, but those days are over. You ruined her life, just like your captain ruined mine. You don't even have the right to be acquainted with this girl since the first day you met her. A scoundrel like you don't deserve it!"

Sasuke struggled to get free from the wires tied on his wrist, "Woman, what the hell are you talking about!"

Kurenai was so angry at that point, she was ready to slap Sasuke over and over again until he spits blood out of his mouth. But that never happened.

Because a strong grip stopped her wrists from hurting Sasuke.

Kurenai's ruby eyes widened in recognition. She recognized that strong grip and callous hand all too well. And Sasuke gave Kurenai the bombshell when he spoke to the owner of that hand.

"Kakashi. When did you get in," the Uchiha asked as Kakashi silently cut off the wires.

Sasuke and Sakura saw how Kakashi and Kurenai awkwardly stare at one another, neither one of them uttered a sound. The room was thick with uncomfortable silence. One looked shocked with disbelief and the other looked sad and nostalgic. Neither of them blinked nor paying attention to their surroundings, their eyes unintentionally gravitated themselves toward each other. Sasuke looked back and forth at the seemingly acquainted pair, trying to figure out what was happening between these two.

Sakura sighed and looked outside where the weeklong downpour has finally ended, "Yuuhi-sensei, maybe you should talk to him privately at the roof? The rain has stopped."

Sakura was answered with silence. But Kakashi and Kurenai seemed to have heard Sakura's suggested and discreetly, finally leaving Sasuke and Sakura to their own private confrontation for the truth.

This time, it was Sasuke and Sakura who were doing the uncomfortable staring contest.

"Is it true, Sakura?"

Sakura looked genuinely puzzled, and Sasuke was becoming more impatient. He's going to cut to the chase.

"Do you have amnesia?"

Sakura tried to give Sasuke the best answer she could, "Like all combat medics, with Hawkeye-sempai as the exception, I was sent to the Basement to have the standard mind conditioning process. The mind conditioning process also erased and changed certain aspects of my memory in order to mold my emotions to become the ideal CM. There is no affirmative yes or no answer to your question."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Because I don't know how much of my memory had been changed, if there was any. I know who I am, so I'm not an amnesiac. At the same time I doubt the authenticity of me recollecting my past, which makes me an amnesiac. I know it is confusing…and it has never been more so since I met you at the hospital."

Though still slightly shocked with disbelief from his earlier discovery, Sasuke felt that there's still hope that she still has some vague memory of him. Does this mean she had some kind of recognition as to who he was to her in her previous life?

Sasuke silenced the voice inside his head as Sakura continued:

"When we first met, I felt like we've met before. I was so speechless at the time when I started to think you might be that boy I'd met years ago. I was so certain by then when you spoke and acted towards me in such an intimate manner. But I also had doubts because I had that same sense of familiarity when I met Captain Hatake thus I thought this feeling I had towards you was merely a coincidence. Besides, the fact that I didn't know your name at the time-"

"-Wait! What?! You mean you didn't even know my name that whole time when we met during check-up?"

"Had I fully recognized you, Uchiha-san, I might've called you by first name, even if it was against the rules. But I didn't 100% recognized you or know your name. So I called you by what was given on your military name tag."

Sasuke looked at the name tag sewn on the left side of his military jacket collar: Uchiha S.

"So that's why she called me 'Uchiha-san' instead."

"Even after I discovered your first name, I still have doubts. I remembered a boy named Sasuke whom I quickly bonded with when we were little. But that's all I know: I don't know or remember his clan name, his exact physical description, or his date of birth. With such limited leads I had, it's obvious my search was difficult."

Sakura gave a dark laugh, "After all, there are over 1000 Sasukes around my age who are currently serving in Konoha, according to the computer database in the military archives. My search could've been far easier had I completely recollected that memory. So in my blurry mindset, you could and couldn't be the boy I knew from my previous life. I was so troubled all this time, trying to figure you out. That's why I kept everything to myself."

Then Sasuke saw the cold expression on Sakura's already pale face.

"But now, I know you couldn't be him."

Sakura no longer looked at Sasuke in the eye, as the room suddenly grow heavily quiet. Her silence and her last sentence only suffocate him from within.

But Sasuke's cold heart wasn't prepared for what Sakura was about to say to him.

"You can't be the Sasuke I'm looking for…because I know I met someone a long time ago named Sasuke, who aspired to not just be a soldier, but also my hero and protector. Though I will always respect you as protocol, I have realized that you are not him, after the way you treated me….because you are nothing like the Sasuke I remembered as. Even if you're never that person I was looking for, I don't think I should look for him anymore, for I'm no longer worthy to see him after letting this disaster happen."

When Sakura turned to face Sasuke again, he was already gone, left through the window where Kakashi snuck in undetected.

Sakura couldn't understand why Sasuke was so sensitive and so personal over such trivial matters. Could he really be her Sasuke?

"No…the Sasuke I remembered would never said those things to me, no matter how bad things were."

Meanwhile Sasuke quickly landed on his feet after exiting from the hospital window. Paying no mind to the calls for him from behind, Sasuke felt he needed to run far away from here as possible. Sasuke felt ten times worse than he was at the hospital, with all hopes he had shattered.

The only thing Sasuke could think of was that he needed to find closure. If he no longer mattered to Sakura, then Sasuke must bitterly accept it. And to accept such tragic realizations, Sasuke knew he had to find closure in order to cope. And he knew exactly whom to ask to find "closure."

"Itachi, I will get the truth out of you no matter what."

End of Chapter 8

We were supposed to be chasing after our dream
Yet we stumbled over others on this narrow winding path.

Reflection Arc theme: "Again" by YUI (also the first OP of FMA Brotherhood - best anime ever!). I found this translation somewhere...and dunno if it's accurate. But luv this song anyway.

NB: Dun Dun Dun! So Kakashi and Kurenai are the two mystery pairings! I didn't leave a lot of clues to indicate it, but for those who have read Crazy-Silly-Me's other works, you know Kurenai is often paired with Kakashi, even though she's in love with Asuma in canon. So sorry to the AsuKure readers, but these are one of the things I'm not going to change.

Congrats to LadyDream3512 for submitting the 100th review (even though half of it was gone)! I hope you have 100 days of happy sunshine! I didn't even expect to get so many reviews for my first Naruto fic so this is a really cool thing. I was so happy, I accidently cut myself!

Next Chapter: Itachi's Observations (Should give you an idea as to who's appearing next ;)