"Veritum dies aperit" (Time discovers the truth)

Chapter 1 Discovery

The world was buzzing. Sounds were hushed, but much too loud. Colors were splayed erratically, connecting and mixing until everything was a blur. Preferring to retreat back into the darkness, where she was sure it would be pleasantly quiet and not so confusing, Sakura closed her eyes and attempted to lull what little control she had over her frazzled brain.

"Sakura!" a harsh command of a voice broke through.

Mentally, Sakura felt herself jolt, and attempted to shake her head and assure the voice that she should just let go. Sakura had, and the feeling was blissful. Her head, however, seemed far too heavy, so Sakura just let it be. Sighing, she reassured herself. Whoever it was would know what she meant.

"Goddammit, Sakura, don't you dare give up on me!" the ragged voice commanded again.

Sakura spent several moments attempting to decipher the voice's words, until thinking became too painful. She did catch the distinguished sound of anxiety in the tone, though, and tried to furrow her brows. What was so upsetting? Sakura was experiencing absolute contentment. Nothing could be wrong- nothing felt wrong. Why didn't the voice understand that?

Instead of a response this time, Sakura felt an unpleasant feeling on top of her chest, an almost overwhelming combination of tension and pressure. It intensified, backed away for a few moments, and then came back. Almost as if she was being pumped... Sakura tried to tell the voice to stop. She tried to yell, tried to scream, but it was as if her voicebox was no longer connected to her brain. Suddenly frustrated- the pressure was going to squeeze the life out of her- Sakura attempted to move something. Anything. But nothing responded, all the way from her pinkies to her toes.

Feeling a strong impulse to cry, Sakura was startled when she felt streams of wetness fall down her cheeks. Everything else seemed numb and muted, except for those tears. Taking a ragged breath, Sakura gathered what little resolve she still had, and attempted to move everything at once.

A gasp sounded, but that barely registered as pain suddenly enveloped her brain and body. The intensity of it was overwhelming, and Sakura cried out at the throbbing. She traded absolute bliss for this? Suddenly angry, both at herself, at her body, at the world even, Sakura pounded her limbs down in frustration. Wait- Sakura paused just long enough to realize that she could move again, before the pain of the experience toke away all of her thinking ability. Clenching her fist, she begged anyone willing to listen. Help, please, or take pity and just let me drown.

Lulled slightly by a hand that brushed her hair back from her forehead, and continued stroking it, Sakura stopped resisting. It was so painful. Suddenly feeling sticky and sweaty, Sakura attempted to roll, but was stopped by a firm grip. With a sigh, Sakura let it be, and gradually let go to a pleasant feeling that was growing from her chest and head. Distantly, she figured that it was chakra, and concluded she must be injured. But the thought passed, just as all the others did, and Sakura let herself retreat into the darkness. It was not as blissful this time around, but Sakura felt at that moment, exhausted, that she would do practically anything for some peace and quiet.

The next time Sakura opened her eyes, light bombarded her senses. Immediately wincing, and frowning at lingering tingles of pain she could still feel at random, Sakura waited until her eyes gradually adjusted. As lights and colors gradually came to together, Sakura was vaguely able to make out white-washed walls, a single window, and a door. As she came into focus, Sakura could make out the dim ceiling lights above her, a cluster of chairs in front of her bed, and an IV connected to her arm. Dimly, she realized that she was in the Konoha hospital.

Severely disorientated, Sakura tried to remember how she had gotten there. Mentally reaching back, though, nothing stayed, and her memories seemed to float away from her like coy in a pond. Already sick of the frustration it caused her, and the exhaustion that seemed to overwhelm her body, Sakura laid back against the bedboard behind her, and lazily toke another look around. It was only then that she was able to discern a silver head in one of the nearby chairs, face covered by a yellow book that Sakura could just barely make out the title for. Icha Icha Paradise. Sakura rolled her eyes, and smiled affectionately, pleased both that he was there, and that the action had cost her no pain.

She wasn't sure what to do next, though. She wanted to speak with him, to ask how he was, and to discover how she came to be in the hospital. At the same time, however, he seemed to be fitfully sleeping, and judging by the exhaustion that seemed to exude from his frame, Sakura supposed that he severely needed it. Nodding her head absentmindedly, and frowning as the slight movement cause her head to throb slightly, Sakura settled comfortably into the pillows behind her.

Preparing to fall back asleep, and hoping that the next time she was awake, Kakashi would be as well, Sakura was startled out of her resolve as loud, albeit quick footsteps made their way towards her room. Resisting the urge to smirk, Sakura waited and looked towards the door with anticipation. She was not disappointed as a head full of bright blond hair shoved its way into her room. Her eyes met a pair of bright blue ones.

"Sakura!" Naruto seemed to explode as he rushed towards her. Practically bouncing on the bed next to her, Sakura attempted to stifle the wince that came with a jolt of pain that shot through her as the mattress moved. Naruto noticed, however, and immediately backed off until he was dangling from the edge of the bed. His expression clearly displayed his excitement, and a small twinge of regret that Sakura assumed was from causing her to wince. Sakura gave him a bright smile.

"Naruto" she announced affectionately, still smiling.

"Sakura" a gruff voice reached her that came from the chair occupied by the previously sleeping shinobi.

Looking over at the ex-ANBU, Sakura resisted the impulse to laugh as she caught sight of the ruffled mat of bedhead that currently made up Kakashi's hair. "Kakashi" she stated instead, grinning despite herself. Kakashi returned the gesture with a eye-crinkling smile.

"How are you feeling Sakura?" Naruto announced, cutting in rather anxiously. Looking over, Sakura could see that Naruto's features were drawn into a pout, and his eyes radiated with worry.

Furrowing her brows in bemusement, but still smiling, Sakura stated, "Fine. Why?" When neither of them answered her, Sakura glanced at both of them with a frown. Pushing down a feeling of rising anxiety that threatened to bloom in her chest, Sakura asked uncertainly, "Why? What happened? Why am I here?"

At her confusion, Naruto immediately turned towards Kakashi and attempted to implore him to explain with his eyes. Kakashi gave a large sigh, and Naruto gradually relaxed into the bed-side. Turning to glance at her former teacher, Sakura could she the hesitation in his eyes, and braced herself. "Kakashi? What's wrong?" she urged him, still frowning.

"Well, what do you remember, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, figuring that that would be a good place to start. Sakura just looked at him blankly for several moments before pulling back, her features giving way and displaying her displeasure.

"Nothing" she stated uncertainly. She knew where she was, and she knew who these people were, but she couldn't dig up anything specific, as hard as she tried.

"Nothing?" Kakashi probed questionably.

"Nothing" she repeated, and then voiced her thoughts as she gradually tilted her head, emphasizing her confusion. "I know where I am. I know who you are. But I can't seem to find anything to grab a hold of. Distinct memories... I don't know where they are" she stated assuredly, almost to herself.

Sighing, Kakashi ran a hand through his hair for a moment, looking at the ceiling almost defeatedly, before looking back at his old student. Tsunade warned him that this could happen. "So" he muttered almost to himself.

"So?" Sakura echoed, and her frown deepened.

Shaking away the displeasure that he knew was unavoidable, he silently berated himself for trying to shelter his student. She had the right to know. Giving her an attempt at a reassuring smile, Kakashi began. "You were found just outside of the village three months ago. You had severe head trauma, and extensive injuries to your chest, which resulted in a self-induced coma. That was the condition in which we found you."

"Found me?" was all Sakura said. Her mind was awhirl. Why would they have to find her? Shouldn't they already know where she was?

Kakashi looked Sakura straight in the eye. "Sakura, you had been absent from the village for a year and a half."

Sakura was startled, and her eyes widened. "Why?" she asked, before continuing. "Was I on a mission? In another country, maybe, where I would be needed for that long?" Sakura knew she was trying to reassure herself from the unpleasant feeling that was growing in her gut.

Kakashi shook his head almost absentmindedly. "Sakura, you left. Of your own free will. A year and a half ago, you were declared a missing-nin." The feeling in the pit of Sakura's stomach intensified to the point where Sakura had to resist the urge to vomit. Curbing the tears that were threatening to spill, Sakura could only whisper, "Why?"

Kakashi sat back in his chair with a resigned air. "We have no idea. You left without saying a word to anyone." At this, Sakura's glance became fearful, and she looked between Kakashi and Naruto with a mixture of apprehension and regret. Slowly, as her mind turned over what Kakashi had said in her mind, and what she could remember about Konoha politics, Sakura looked towards Kakashi resolutely. "So why am I not dead?" she asked hesitantly. That was the fate of all missing-nin, she recalled darkly. Except perhaps Sasuke, and that was only because the council wanted a hold of the Sharingan.

Kakashi gave her a look that she couldn't identify, and stated dispassionately, "It's because you are four months pregnant. The council attempted to execute you, but when the village heard that you were with child, and in a coma, they protested, loudly. It was agreed to keep you alive until a time where you could be re-tried. Of course, this was with the assumption that you would wake up."

Sakura could feel her hands shaking as she looked down towards her stomach nervously. At the moment it was comfortably covered with bedsheets and blankets. Looking back at Kakashi she murmured hesitantly, "How did I wake up?"

At this, Kakashi's look turned black, and Sakura was surprised he didn't snarl in fury. Naruto did. "You were on feeding tubes. Hardly surprising, considering you were in a coma. The council members thought that they could get around the voice of the people by unplugging you late at night to make the incident seem accidental."

Pausing slightly, he turned to glare at the window. "Simply removing your feeding tubes would not have done anything for awhile, of course. It takes a few days to starve, not a few hours. However, they unplugged everything, and injected you with things to assure your death. Drugs. Poisons. It nearly killed Tsunade to keep you alive."

At her teacher's name, a flash crossed over Sakura's mind, and she suddenly saw a vividly colored scene that consisted of her and Tsunade in an office surrounded by scrolls, working and laughing together. Shaking her head to rid herself of the disorientation, Sakura frowned at the implications of what Kakashi was describing. "What about the baby?" she asked, suddenly worried.

"We were able to operate before any of the substances got to the child" Kakashi stated matter of factly.

Sakura was strangely relieved, but frowned nonetheless. "The council wants me dead" she stated aloofly.

Kakashi nodded his consent, still staring at the window.

After a few moments of silence, Sakura prompted, "So when is the re-trial?"

Kakashi turned to look at her with something akin to surprise. "Definitely not until after the baby is born- the village would be outraged at murdering a pregnant woman. And now that you are awake, I am sure they are very curious to find the identity of the father." Both Kakashi and Naruto now looked at her as if they were wondering the same thing.

Sakura's eyebrows raised at the implications, before furrowing in thought. The father. She hadn't considered that, and wasn't sure she wanted to follow to the end of where that train of thought left her. Brushing it aside to ponder later, Sakura considered what she knew.

She left the village- something must have happened. She was confident that she knew herself, and her reactions. There had to have been some reason to explain why. Next, she was in a coma- that thought was not at all pleasant. She would be considerably out of shape if that was true. She would have to work to remedy that. Finally, she was pregnant. Before the connotation could shock her, Sakura stopped herself and forced out a meditative breath. Reassuring herself, she gauged herself emotionally. While there was some shock, a part of her had already resigned to the facts Kakashi listed, as if she had already known about them. While she was genuinely surprised by the pregnancy, she wasn't troubled by it.

Intuitionally assured that it wasn't rape, and deciding that she wanted the baby, Sakura relaxed. She could deal with this. Just one step at a time.

Giving a reassuring smile at herself, and the men in front of her, Sakura let herself fall back into the pillows. This stress couldn't be good for the baby. Somehow giddy at the thought, Sakura asked, "How old am I?" It was such a trivial question, compared to the other information she received, but getting a bearing on time might help her remember more.

Kakashi still looked a little rattled at Sakura's blatant acceptance, but smiled back at her. "Nineteen, I believe" he said with the slightest tilt of his head.

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise, before narrowing thoughtfully. An appropriate age, she decided, to have a child. Much easier to grasp then if she had been seventeen, or kami forbid, fifteen. Nineteen, she resolved, she could live with. Nodding to herself absentmindedly, she began to plan. She needed to discover a lot of things. Why she left the village, for starters. The reasons behind the council's blatant disapproval of her existence. She needed to get back into shape- thoughtfully, Sakura made that a priority. She now had two lives to protect, she thought with a smile. Especially in the case that she or her child was condemned. She would have to be strong enough to protect them outside of the village. Not an easy task, by anyone's standards.

Feeling much better with plans, Sakura looked to her boys in front of her. "So how has it been?" she asked almost happily.

Naruto, she could tell, was about to rant about his life, his dreams, inconsequential people, when Kakashi butted in. "You are just accepting everything?" he asked with a frown, and a disbelieving tone.

Sakura raised one brow in response. "I must have had less maturity than I remember" Sakura stated somewhat sardonically, crossing her arms over her chest and the bedsheets and blankets covering it. Kakashi simply frowned. She may have been mature, he thought to himself, but certainly not this impassive about events of such importance. The Sakura he knew before she had left would certainly have been crying by now. Sighing at the look she was giving him, Kakashi gave her a ghost of a smile before glancing at Naruto expectantly. Naruto toke this as sign to continue, and burst into the tangent Sakura had expected earlier.

She must have sat there listening to Naruto rant beside Kakashi for a half an hour before the door was opened boldly by a frowning blond. "Leave" she commanded to Naruto and Kakashi, before making her way inside the room. Naruto looked up at her and pouted, and Kakashi just stared at her lazily. "Now!" Tsunade shouted, prepared to kick their chairs. Kakashi poofed out of existance, and Naruto creep backwards towards the window, before giving a last "Bye, Sakura", opening the window, and darting through. Tsunade just gave a large sigh, before looking at Sakura.

Frowning, but refraining from saying anything, Tsunade sat in the chair that was previously occupied by Kakashi. She looked at the girl in the bed expectantly.

"Shishou?" Sakura asked questionably. Tsunade twitched slightly, before her gaze became assessing. The blond looked over her patient quietly for a few moments before looking Sakura in the eye. "Your memory?" she asked briskly.

Sakura immediately responded, "Partial. I seem to remember people and places, but the events surrounded the last four or so years are fuzzy."

"Fuzzy?" Tsunade questioned with a raised brow.

"Incomplete" Sakura stated instead, her features dispassionate.

Tsunade nodded and hummed assertively, before abruptly standing up. "Right now you will rest. Later, we will have a very long discussion" the Hokage promised the girl, before walking towards the door. Giving Sakura one last glance over her left shoulder, Tsunade quietly closed the door.

Sakura pushed down the sudden feeling of discomfort that her teacher's brief presence had brought her, and tried not to dwell too much on the past, and in her case, the present. Settling back into bed and succumbing to the exhaustion, Sakura let her thoughts drift until a sleep toke her that was without dreams.

The next time Sakura woke up, she was pleased to notice that her grogginess and moments of disorientation were much shorter. Feeling content as she was with no impending need to rise, Sakura gazed lazily around her. A young nurse was attending to her monitor on the right side of her bed. Narrowing her eyes slightly, Sakura pinned the nurse as newly instated from the permanent look of anxiety on the nurse's face that seemed to pinch her nose unpleasantly and draw out long lines on her forehead. Her long brown hair did little to help her expression, tied in a ponytail with loose strands that clung to the girls cheeks pathetically. Sakura resisted the urge to groan.

Sighing loudly enough for the girl to hear, Sakura raised an eye expectantly. The nurse seemed startled by the noise and jumped back to stare at Sakura nervously, much too slow to make her a kunoichi, Sakura noticed.

"Do you know what you are doing?" Sakura asked dryly, a brow still raised as she assessed what she could see of the girl's clipboard. The young nurse, at seeing her glance, moved to cover the clipboard with her chest possessively. Sakura's eyes narrowed in turn.

Raising her chin to the challenge, the girl stated somewhat snobbily, "Of course I do." Sufficiently hiding her nervous tendencies, the girl leaned forward and suggested with a sickly sweet smile, "Maybe it is time for your daily dose of sedatives?"

Sakura pursed her lips in displeasure. There was a time when she practically owned this hospital, and irritation rose in her chest at the girl's obvious lack of respect. And since when did a recovering patient without extensive injuries require sedatives? "Sedatives?" she asked frowning.

The girl gave an authoritative look at the clipboard in her hands and nodded in agreement. Looking back at the pink-haired young woman on the bed she had to resist smirking. "That's what it says" she sniped instead, heading towards the door. She paused at the door when a voice reached her from inside the room, constricted with anger.

"I would like to speak with the Hokage" Sakura ordered, pushing herself up in bed to give herself as much of an authoritative look as possible.

"I'm sure you would" the girl stated sarcastically, still smiling, before closing the door. Sakura had to clench her hands and force herself to take measured breaths. Attempting to sooth the anger that was quickly pulsating through her limbs, Sakura barely noticed as she rose from the bed. Immediately protesting, her muscles gave way, and the next thing she knew, Sakura was sprawled out on an expanse of scrubbed hospital tile.

Deeply frowning, Sakura quickly chartered her body with chakra. The rate at which her muscles had disintegrated was no where near normal for a mere three months, Sakura assessed with a grimace. Either the drugs and poison, or maybe even the sedatives had caused this. While a distant thought in her mind screamed sabotage, another part of Sakura's brain was going through her list of known medical jutsu, looking for one that could be of assistance.

Smiling grimly as she came across one, Sakura painfully sat up on the floor, and pushed herself into a position where her hands had access to her arms and legs. Giving a deep breath, and thankful for a full reserve of chakra, Sakura began to slowly heal disintegrated parts of muscle fibers and tissues back together. For something so delicate, however, precision and time were a necessity, and so it was hardly a surprise when four hours later Tsunade found Sakura still sitting on the floor.

The intensity of the concentration that absorbed Sakura's features, however, prevented the Hokage from screaming at her patient. Instead, she watched the technique her apprentice was performing with growing concern. Brows furrowed, Tsunade felt for a period when Sakura's chakra was waning, and at that time spoke up. "Sakura?" she asked almost hesitantly, frowning.

Sakura looked up at her shishou blankly after she heard her name called, and stopped the flow of chakra. There was a moment of silence as Tsunade stared down at the girl, who blinked in reply. Then, her hands on her hips, Tsunade found her voice.

"What the hell are you doing on the floor? I thought I told you to rest!" the blond stated angrily, slightly snarling.

As she absorbed her teacher's fury, Sakura was able to regain her own. "Why are you sedating me?" she grounded out in frustration. She had so many things that she wanted to voice, but this had been the thing that was nagging at the back of her brain for the last few hours. Sedatives were dangerous, and most of them narcotic. Hardly acceptable to be giving to a pregnant woman.

"Sedating?" Tsunade asked in surprise, arms crossing underneath her chest as she leaned back.

"That's what the nurse said" Sakura stated, eyes narrowed, but she could feel herself loosing steam at the release.

Tsunade's frown deepened. "What nurse?" she asked somewhat dangerously.

"A brunette. Ponytail. New recruit. She said that I received daily doses of sedatives" Sakura reiterated, before continuing, "You know what sedatives could do to my baby." Sakura's lips were pursed as her own mind pursued the possibilities.

"You aren't supposed to be administered sedatives" Tsunade stated assertively, before giving Sakura an assessing look. "Are you sure that is what she told you?" she asked, trying to pinpoint Sakura's stress levels.

Sakura grimaced. Her shishou would question her word? Probably the result from leaving a year and a half ago and becoming a missing-nin. She was have to get used to that. "Yes" Sakura maintained confidently.

Tsunade gave Sakura a brief nod, before taking quickened steps out of the room. Returning a few minutes later, Tsunade picked Sakura up and placed her back into the bed, her expression dark. Running tired hands through her blond hair, Tsunade muttered something about wanting sake before sitting in a chair next to the bed. Turning slowly to look at Sakura she stated, "I talked to the girl in question. She maintains that she said no such thing."

Sakura immediately scowled, and looked away from her shishou to look out of the window. After a few moments of silence, in which Sakura forced herself to calm down, Sakura turned back to Tsunade and asserted resolutely, "It doesn't matter as long as you can give me your confidence that you are not sedating me."

Tsunade gave Sakura an odd glance, before stating, "I give you my confidence." Sakura immediately relaxed into the bed, barely noticing the release of tension in her shoulders. Allowing herself a small smile of reassurance, Sakura turned back to the Hokage and voiced her other concern.

"There is serious disintegration in my muscles that I can't explain. How did that happen?" Sakura asked, half-hoping that Tsunade would assure her about the after affects of a poison, or something else relatively harmless. Tsunade simply looked troubled again, and laid a hand softly across Sakura's arm. Resisting the impulse to jolt at the contact, Sakura could feel Tsunade's chakra quickly and efficiently traveling throughout her body. Still frowning after she finished, Tsunade pulled back thoughtfully.

"I can't account for it" Tsunade said simply, still obviously troubled. Looking towards her student, Tsunade asked, "Do you have any idea where it came from?"

"Sabotage" was all Sakura murmured, voicing her earlier thoughts. There were flaws with her hypothesis, however. She didn't know of a chemical off the top of her head that could disintegrate muscles. Therefore she didn't know to what effect it caused, and the time spam in endured. She looked at Tsunade curiously.

Tsunade's expression was dark as she considered Sakura's suggestion. "Possibly" she let out with a sigh, before leaning back into the chair in a slouch. "In any case, I will research and see what I can find. In the mean time however- how much has Kakashi told you?" she asked blatantly.

"My age. My missing-nin status. My pregnancy" Sakura listed with a blank expression.

"Your memory?" Tsunade pressed.

"Same as earlier, except for the occasional flash of remembrance, and even that only occurs randomly, and shows itself as a picture" Sakura stated, recalled the image she received of her shishou and her working together.

At this, Tsunade nodded optimistically. "Signs of your memory returning are very good. After the operation, it was at a ten percent at best, but it seems you are beating the odds." Bearing a look of sudden contemplation, Tsunade continued, "There is a remedial medicine you can take that can help your memory return, quickly. It is made of harmless herbs, and should therefore have no effect on the baby." Sakura was already nodding her head in agreement when she saw the look of hesitation cross her teacher's face. "Do you want to remember?" she asked intently.

"Yes" Sakura decided almost immediately after the question. She was prepared to catch up with her past, and never to let it dictate her life like it used to. She looked boldly into Tsunade's eyes.

Tsunade seemed to catch whatever determination Sakura was brewing in there, and absentmindedly nodded her head. "Alright" she stated, "From now on with your breakfast you will be receiving these herbs in hopes that your memory will come back to you. When it does, you will tell me what you know." She did not say this threateningly, and actually attempted to implore the girl. "As you are aware, your re-trial is months away. Anything that could help the village could help you out of an execution."

Sakura nodded. "I understand Shishou" she said with a small smile. Tsunade gave into the impulse to pat the girl's head affectionately, before getting up from the chair.

"Shishou?" Sakura asked urgently. Tsunade hummed in response. "When will I be able to get out of bed?" Sakura asked with a pout and a furrowed brow. Tsunade laughed and headed towards the door.

Upon reaching it, she looked over her left shoulder towards the girl. "You should be fit to walk around in the next few days, only hours at a time. If all goes well, you should expect to be released from the hospital in two weeks, with bi-weekly check-up appointments. You will be restricted from training, however, for the next month." Sakura toke it all with hardened resolve, and waited until the door closed to begin planning.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. Pity.

Note to Readers: Review if you have any questions, comments, or concerns please. 3