Shino threw up.

Twelve hours after... after, he was clutching the toilet bowl heaving hot pot and bile and everything else in his stomach as hot tears streamed down his face. Sakura's right arm wound around his middle to keep him steady and her left hand smoothed his hair back as she let him cry.

The bathroom door was open, its yellow light pouring into the inn room where Kiba paced back and forth in front of the door as he muttered to himself. Akamaru pressed himself into one of the corners, trying to shrink his hulking form as much as possible as he whined as quietly as he could with his paws over his head and his eyes screwed shut.

Kurenai sat in a worn chair pushed up against the single bed. Tenzo laid pale and bandaged without a single stir of consciousness, but he was breathing breathing breathing and that was all that mattered. That was all Shino cared about until he was ripped from the body before his chakra levels could baseline and make him pass out in his own sick.

And when Tenzo was finally out of the deepest pits of his injuries—the deep gashes in his stomach, the holes from the caltrops embedded in his back, the kunai-inflicted cuts, the fire jutsu-induced burns, the senbon-causing puncture wounds, the strained muscles, the shattered rib cage, the snapped bones, the swollen eye, the bruised neck, the chakra exhaustion, the internal bleeding, the pierced organs—miraculously, and he was able to start that slow healing process. Shino made sure a small colony had made a temporary home in his system to monitor his progress and alert him if any complications rose.

Well. Any further complications.

"We need to take him to an actual hospital," Shino gasped after a particularly long retch. "He needs fluids and constant observation. I may be able to make my own saline drip for him, but it needs to be under sterile conditions. While it's possible, I would pre... pre—" He hurled into the bowl, and Sakura passed him a damp cloth to wipe his mouth. "Th-Thank you. I would prefer professional-level sterility."

"Can we not take him ta' some clinic here?" Kiba asked.

Kurenai shook her head. "Meadow Country is allied with Fire and we're only an hour or so from Kusagakure," she said, and Kiba groaned. "Depending on the severity of what they'll be accusing us of, there could be sweeps for us, or at the very least our photos or information will be distributed to places they may believe we'll end up." Sakura rubbed circles into Shino's back when he shivered, pressing his forehead against his arm. "We won't know until we can get our hands on an updated Bingo Book, but..." Kurenai sighed and reached out to grasp one of Tenzo's hands. Her thumb caressed his calloused palms. "I don't know what we can do."

Kiba stopped in the middle of the room and glanced at the floor. All around them were the things he and Sakura rushed to pack before high-tailing it out of the village—clothes and scrolls filled with his seals texts, his favorite jacket, and rolls of Kumo-red bandages to last him a year. His hand brushed against the tattoo on his shoulder where he kept all those forbidden things, rings and tomes and the notes that could get him incarcerated for life.

Sakura packed her trivia books, the small keychain from Naruto, all her weapons, all the scrolls that used to stay tacked above her bed that she'd stare at when she thought no one was looking, the rope belt Killer Bee wouldn't let her leave without. Then she'd snuck to Naruto's apartment to hand off that bag of new White Letters they'd only finished writing days ago.

They made sure to get all of Shino's things, too. Everything he couldn't live without; the poison kit Tenzo gifted him, his favorite books, his entire personal medical inventory, the white flak vest C gave him.

A weak laugh fell from his lips. "They really went and fuckin' framed us, didn't they?" He ran both his fingers through his hair. "No, it was smart. Fuckin' brilliant. Everyone was still dealin' with the news that an Akatsuki member got ganked and right in the middle of all the bullshit, the motherfucker rips the goddamn rug from under our feet!"

Shino tried to push himself onto unstable feet. "I need to check up on everyone else."

"Stay down," Sakura ordered quietly. He kept trying, but lost his footing when she tugged and held him to the floor. Her eyes were glassy and withdrawn, trained on an invisible spot on the wall. "Rest."

"I need—"

"Rest."

"He made this the first move, of course he made this the first move! We were so worried that he was so damn quiet and didn't think he had the fucking balls to do something like this! He played us like we were the whole fucking orchestra!" Kiba seethed. His nails sharpened and his fangs poked out of his mouth as he started pacing again. "And now we're what? Rogues? Oh, that's fuckin rich. Couldn't kill us, so do the next best thing: get the rest of the world on our asses for some chump change! Fuck!"

The silencing seals in the room shimmered. Tenzo wasn't awake to make note of it.

"It was incredibly bold of them. One wrong move could have upended their whole plan, and the fact they'd done something to all of you in multiple locations within the village..." Kurenai sighed wearily and held her free hand to her face. "The whole plan to debase you reeks of one made by a desperate man, and I hate to admit he'd done it so well."

"I bet he's had practice," spat Kiba. "How many people d'ya think he's murdered 'cause they knew too much? Huh? All the bodies in unmarked graves or taken care of in a different country or burned to ash and mixed in the dirt so no one ever found them, just—ARGH!"

He slumped onto the floor in a boneless heap, the fight draining out of him in an instant and a new type of fatigue winding in the sinews of his muscles. He looked towards the bathroom and wilted further at the sight; Shino had passed out, finally, and was getting the break he needed after... Fuck, after Torune. They'd booked it for hours on end before making it to this town and once they'd been able to get all in one place, Shino had three separate panic attacks, almost sent himself into a coma, and ended with puking his guts out for the past hour.

He was curled against Sakura now, all his color gone and sweat clinging to him like a second skin. Terrible. He looked terrible and all one hundred shades of awful and it made Kiba himself want to throw up, because Shino had been doing so good these past few months. He would push everything down. Everything about Torune—he'd shove all those memories and lock them away until they bubbled up too far and he'd have another full on breakdown when the truth inevitably shot out where he didn't want to see it.

And Sakura? She was... quiet. Unbearably quiet. She'd been so panicked and scared and frazzled when they first collided back in her apartment after she said she bolted from Kotetsu's apartment and after he'd discovered Tenzo's body, and she held up her fear until they crossed the border and she simply... shut down. Her face blanked and her gaze went distant and she talked in short, clipped sentences.

She was still responsive, at least, and calm enough to stay aware. But the fact that she'd even been driven to that state...

'Danzo. I'll kill him. I'll kill him. I'llkillhimI'llkillhimI'llkillhimI'LLKILLHIM.'

Kiba rubbed his eyes and raised his head to the thin cut of light streaming into the room from the gap between the drawn curtains. It was what, noon? Early afternoon? Something like that, they'd left Konoha sometime during the night, so...

He pushed himself to his feet. "I'm gonna get us somethin' ta' eat," he said. "Scout out the village, see if there's any Konoha-nin 'round." He grimaced, reaching up to yank the hitai-ate off his forehead and tossing it wherever, just somewhere away from him. But his face softens when he looks at his partner who let a small whimper escape his muzzle. "I think you should stay in the room, at least 'til I get back. I promise ta' bring you back somethin' good, yeah?"

Akamaru managed a low woof before he crawled to lay atop Kurenai's feet. She instantly dipped her hand to thread her fingers through his fur, and Kiba sighed in relief.

"No problem."

He retreated towards the door, made sure there were senbon in his sleeves and at his waist and tucked in his sandals, and slipped out of the room.

:: ::

It was a bright, sunny day on this side of Meadow Country. They were in a tourist town known for the temple at the north end of the districts and some other smaller shrines scattered here and there and were populated by a civilian community. Kiba deliberately heavied his steps as he walked and made a show of looking around like he was interested; he was probably the most likely to blend in with the crowds with his brown hair and black eyes, and he hadn't even touched a jar of Inuzuka paint upon returning to Konoha after Kumo.

Didn't smell like anyone's overtly lurking on the rooftops. Didn't seem to be any other shinobi around, Konoha or otherwise, but that could just mean they weren't idiots and he had to be more careful.

After he made three different circuits around the town, every now and again asking different locals different directions to different shops whose names he'd picked up from mindless conversations, he ducked into a restaurant a few blocks away from the inn.

"Hello!" the hostess at the front greeted politely. "Table for one?"

"I was actually wonderin' if you do take out here?"

"Yes, sir. Would you like to see a menu?"

"That'd be great, thanks."

She handed him one of the menus from a clear plastic holder attached to the side of the podium which he took with a smile and leaned by the door as he flipped it open. Oh, cool. It was a curry house. Should be filling enough and maybe he'd get a light soup for Shino until he could stomach something heavier...

His eyes flickered above the laminated pages to scan the seats, and the few people that occupied the tables themselves with idle chatter or the latest newspaper. But just as he was about to drop his eyes back to the menu, he saw him.

His back was facing the curry house entrance, allowing Kiba the full view of his long-sleeved kimono shirt and pitch black hair that spiked at the back.

Kiba huffed.

What a terrible idea to hide your face when there was a clear view of your clan symbol stamped right below your neck.

He smiled at the hostess when he walked back to the podium and ordered the curry plates. Shrimp for Sakura, chicken for Shino and a side of miso soup, tofu for Kurenai-sensei, two beefs for him and Akamaru, paid with some of the money they'd gotten from their S-rank. After the hostess kindly let him know that his orders would be out in twenty, thirty minutes max, he flashed her a grin and strode past her podium right towards that corner table.

And plopped down right across from Uchiha Sasuke.

He stared at the taut rage that lined Sasuke's shoulders as it curled up to his jaw and flashed in his eyes; bright, red, unforgiving. They were older now, older when they saw each other last, but back then Sasuke hadn't defected and Kiba was getting shipped off to his death.

"Fancy seein' you," he greeted, canines glinting. "Came to visit the temple?"

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "Inuzuka," he said once recognition piqued in his swirling crimson eyes. "Did Konoha send you?"

"What, like, ta' get curry? Nah, I don't think they'd send me so far just for that." He wrinkled his nose when the Uchiha's face remained completely impassive. "Eesh. You don't see a classmate in three years and suddenly it's like you can't laugh at a joke—"

"Answer the question."

Kiba snorted. "Yeah, okay. Cut right to the chase, huh?" He threw an arm over the back of his chair. "But no. Konoha and I aren't exactly best friends for fuckin' life at the moment, and you can check it yourself once the new Bingo Book update circulates." He hummed, a sudden thought crossing his mind. "Orochimaru here with you?"

"That's none of your business." He paused, eyes slowly sinking back to their usual murky black as he appraised the shinobi before him. "Konoha. Don't tell me you've suddenly had a change of heart and gone rogue."

"Suddenly?" Kiba laughed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Eh, we weren't really friends back in the village, so I don't blame ya' for not knowin' me at all." His grin widened. "Ain't nothin' sudden 'bout this, Uchiha. It's actually been a long time comin', if we're bein' real right now. But that shit still pisses me off, so let's talk 'bout somethin' else." He set a forearm on the table and leaned forward. "Is Orochimaru here with you?"

Sasuke said nothing. Never changed his face.

Kiba blinked. "Are you always like this?"

"I would ask you the same question."

"That's fair," he shrugged. A waiter came up to ask if he'd like a drink while he waited and he declined with another grin and shake of his head, and when he looked back forward he spotted two people walking towards their table.

He groaned, what little good mood he mustered instantly souring.

"Kiba-kun? Well, if this isn't a pretty little surprise," Orochimaru smiled as he took the empty seat beside Sasuke. His lackey—Yakushi?—seated himself to Kiba's left and eyed him with a cool calculation. But Kiba's gaze never left Orochimaru's yellow eyes and pale skin and never had he wanted to be back in that inn more in his entire fucking life. "It's been years since we've met, little dog. You've grown. Are you here with your friends? Shino-kun? Sakura-chan?"

He was too tired to deal with this bullshit.

"Fuck off."

Yakushi shifted slightly and Sasuke grew more attentive, his gaze flickering back and forth between his mentor and his old classmate, and Kiba knew when he was walking on thin ice. It was already a lot to be under the scrutiny of a batshit-insane sannin, but it was even worse when the batshit-insane sannin had him outnumbered in a country that Konoha had every right to run investigations in.

But he was tired. Over twelve hours ago, everything had gone to shit. It was just as bad as the Coliseum and as bad as learning that Sai was nothing but another one of Danzo's mindless puppets—and somehow, it was a little worse. Because he and Akamaru thought that Tenzo was dead and suddenly there was something that scared Sakura enough to shatter her foundation and then Shino had been tricked into killing his cousin and then Kurenai found them telling them they needed to leave and honestly—

He looked into those yellow eyes and sneered.

Honestly? He had enough to deal with right now, and he wasn't going to let this bastard make it any worse.

Orochimaru set his chin on his knuckles, positively enthralled by the turn of events. "Why would I do that when this looks so much more exciting?" Long, pale fingers tapped against an equally pale cheek. "So, Kiba-kun, what brings you to this adorable little pit stop? Came to visit the temple?"

Kiba wanted to kick himself in the teeth.

"Nah, I'm not a temple kinda guy," he said. The senbon lined all along his arms beneath his jacket sleeves were ready for use at any time. What the fuck was he supposed to do here? "What are the chances you'll, like, actually leave me the hell alone and we can pretend this never happened?"

Orochimaru quirked a brow. "That would depend on my mood, but I'm sure you'll find a way to surprise me if you play your cards right." He brushed his hair out of his face. "But Kiba-kun, it's been so long since we've last seen each other! Right in the middle of the Forest of Death during your's and Sasuke-kun's Chuunin exams, was it?"

Kiba felt Sasuke's burning gaze pierce through his skull.

"Yeah, can't say I've missed you since then," he huffed. "And before you ask, no, Konoha didn't send me. Like I told Uchiha, we aren't on good terms right now."

Yakushi's observing him like he was a particularly interesting spec on a microscope slide. He must've not known anything about the team or Sakura, at the very least. Which would have been reassuring if Orochimaru wasn't a legitimate psychopath that always had two back up plans and an ulterior motive every time he opened his mouth.

"Have you ever been on good terms?" Orochimaru questions, and it was sickening how genuine he could make himself sound. Sasuke tensed and Yakushi laced his fingers together, and Kiba really, really just wanted to eat his damn curry. "What was it exactly that Sakura-chan said to me when I told her I'd kill the Sandaime? Kiba-kun, can you recall?"

Kiba tapped his fingers against the table. There were five viable exits he could take if he needed to run. The back door was the farthest and was probably at the other side of the restaurant and blocked by staff, and the front door was in his direct line of sight but spilled into the busy street where civilians could be caught in the crossfire. The two destructive options included either breaking through the window or blowing up a hole in the wall, but Yakushi was in his way and he'd feel a little bad causing property damage from a place he wanted to get food from. The shunshin probably was his best bet if he appeared on this roof or a roof nearby, but the three of them could, would, catch up easily if they wanted to, and that's just another confrontation he didn't want right now.

He shrugged. "I dunno. Somethin' 'bout makin' the bastard choke or some shit?"

"You didn't like the Sandaime Hokage?" Yakushi spoke for the first time since their arrival.

"Don't worry," Kiba grinned. Faintly, a shiver ran along the seal on his tongue that had been layered and layered with concealments over the years, starting from Kumo and stacking them up so thickly that they hadn't even been found out by Morino Ibiki of T&I. But every now and again the cursed seal burned, and so did his hatred for everyone that had been involved. "He didn't like me either."

"Why did you go rogue?" Sasuke cut in.

"Didn't go rogue on purpose," he answered glibly. "Don't even know what I'm gettin' charged for—didn't I already tell you ta' look for the new round of Bingo Books?"

"An Inuzuka gone rogue," Yakushi noted, his tone bland but his disbelief palpable. Orochimaru hummed, his lips twisting back into that smile that always looked as if he knew something everyone else didn't.

"Not just an Inuzuka, I'm assuming," he said. "An Aburame too, correct?" His eyes gleamed. "And a Hoshigaki as well."

Kiba placed both forearms on the table and leaned forward, all traces of humor dropping from his face. He didn't owe them any explanations, but he'd be lying if he didn't think the reactions from that were a little funny; Sasuke's frown had gone pronounced and looked halfway to pissed off with all the questions that were probably wracking his brain and Yakushi had never seemed more confused.

"Are you done?"

A short laugh burst deep from Orochimaru's chest. "Kiba-kun, you're a delight. You used to be so afraid of me."

(Blood-stained Coliseum floors. An ink lion ripping open his shoulder. Choosing pack over Tsume and Hana and Kuromaru and the Haimaru. Sakura's fear. Shino's panic. Tenzo's body.)

"You used to be scarier," Kiba replied truthfully.

The hostess came by their table with a bag of takeout, to which Kiba thanked her for with a grin and stood up from his seat. Picking up the bag with one hand and stuffing the other hand in a jacket pocket, he regarded the three missing-nin still seated at the table.

"Nice chat, I guess? Hope I don't see you guys anytime soon."

Sasuke and Yakushi turned their gazes to Orochimaru, who stared a little too long with a little too creepy of a smile.

"A shame that would be," he said. "You've put me in such a good mood that I've somehow been elevated to graciousness." He finally broke his stare and waved a dismissive hand. "Send my regards to Shino-kun and Sakura-chan, it truly has been far too long."

Kiba kept the look of disgust on his face long enough to shunshin the fuck out of there.

:: ::

When he got back, Shino was in the middle of chewing a soldier pill to Kurenai's chagrin and Sakura's disapproving frown.

Kiba faltered. "I was only gone a couple hours! Why the hell's he already awake?"

"I wish I could tell you, but he startled himself awake and now insists that he'll only go back to sleep once he runs a thorough check up on each of us," Kurenai sighed. "As you know, each of you can be particularly stubborn when you want to be, so..." Her gaze wandered over to their medic. "I don't want to see you with another soldier pill unless it's an emergency, understand?"

"Yes, sensei," Shino replied.

"And if you start to get nauseous, let us know right away."

"Yes, sensei."

Kurenai worried her bottom lip, looking as if she had more to say but didn't quite muster herself enough to say it, and hung back to watch as Shino raised a pair of glowing green hands to Sakura, one on her chest and one on her back. Both of them were sitting in the bathroom doorway.

"I hope curry's okay," Kiba says as he set the take out bag on the small side table and undid the knot. "Sorry if it's not as hot, had to make a detour to make sure no one followed me back."

Kurenai smiled. "No, this is perfect. Thank you, Kiba."

"You're exhausted, as to be expected," Shino muttered as he ran a scan through Sakura's system. "Chakra stores are about halfway replenished, leg muscles are worn which can be fixed with standard painkillers and cooling chakra..." Sakura turned her head away from the side he sat on, her brows pulled together and a thousand and one things speeding just behind her eyes.

(Nowhere to run, Sasori's voice whispered in her ear. It was mocking and taunting and held her throat like he was standing right in front of her. Nowhere to hide. Who do you think you are to believe that you can keep running from Leader-sama for so long?)

"—your arm."

Sakura blinked, wearily turning her head. "What about it?"

"You've kept it attached to your pathways for over twenty-four hours, and while it isn't unusual for you to expend your chakra usage on it for missions that require it, we're currently in a position where you can remove the prosthesis," he said. She glanced away and pulled her puppet arm into her lap.

"I'll need it in case something else happens."

Shino linked his fingers with hers and gave her hand a squeeze before he heaved himself over to Akamaru.

'It's almost a tragedy,' Sakura thought mildly as she leaned against one corner of the bathroom and breathed, 'that this was how we ended up.'

And it was another tragedy in itself that her mind wasn't just dwelling on being forcibly driven out of the village. Of course it was part of it—they wouldn't be stuck in an inn room in the middle of Meadow otherwise—but it was far from the first time that luck turned them away.

They'd been silenced, branded, abandoned, ambushed, left on the enemy's doorstep like a gift—and yet, there was still more. There was always more. Sasori and his voice that wouldn't leave her head, the re-ignited fear of the Akatsuki that had been re-instilled after plunging those swords through his puppet heart, the fallout Shino and Kiba had with their families because of what she'd dragged them into, the death of Aburame Torune by Shino's hand because Danzo was a brilliant coward. What else had been done to smear their names? Aoba had seen them, he couldn't have been there by coincidence—what did that mean for everyone else they knew? Iruka? Kotetsu? Were they alright or did they...?

(You're Akatsuki's. How long did you think you could keep this up? Sasori grins)

Sakura tucked her legs against her chest and dropped her forehead onto her knees.

Shino placed one hand on Akamaru's head and one on his chest, and he was halfway through his examination when his glasses slobbered off his face from the sudden force of the dog's licks.

"Yes, I'm alright, but may I please—"

Another series of licks. His hair stuck up at the front. He sighed.

Kiba passed the take out boxes to everyone in the room, miso soup to Shino first, and plopped down next to the bathroom doorway just on the other side of where Sakura was half hidden. He waited until everyone had at least two bites of their food before he cleared his throat.

"So, uh, Orochimaru's in town."

Silence.

"And Uchiha Sasuke. And Yakushi. They were at the curry house and we... talked?"

A piece of Kurenai's tofu hovered just in front of her mouth as she took in his words, her red eyes crushed with the weight of what she just watched happen to her kids. Back during the Chuunin Exams the mere mention of Orochimaru's name had her wary, but him in such close contact with her kids filled her with every need to run him through if he ever decided to touch them one more time.

"What did he do to you?" she questioned sharply, those crushed eyes now incensed as she set her food on the side table and pushed herself up. "Did he hurt you? Threaten you? If he has—"

"I don't think it was anythin' too bad? Like yeah, Orochimaru gets off on power trips and shit but I think he was too busy with whatever evil bastards do, and he was being his usual creepy self and Yakushi and Uchiha were lost the entire time. It didn't seem like they knew anythin' 'bout us," Kiba said. He shoved a hunk of beef into his mouth. "It's—I dunno, Orochimaru's somethin' else. He said he was 'bein' gracious' when I left so I didn't think any of them were gonna follow me—but! But, don't worry, I stayed away from the inn for like half an hour to make sure I didn't have a tail when I came back."

"It means he'll leave you alone for now." Sakura's voice traveled softly into the main room, her whole head obscured by the bathroom wall but her legs sticking out where they all could see. "If he said he won't go after you, he won't." A short exhale. "That's part of his game."

Kurenai didn't know how Sakura was in-tuned enough to Orochimaru's machinations to know how he worked, and how she was so sure of herself that she had resigned herself to the fact, but it wasn't a discussion for today. She accepted the information with a frown. "Even so, our location is compromised. He might not care that we're here, but he still knows we're here, and that's a problem. We need to move—tonight, if we can."

"Which brings us back to our original discussion. The location must first and foremost be able to provide medical access," Shino said. He patted Akamaru's head a few times before he motioned for Kiba to come closer. "Our top priority right now is making sure Tenzo-san makes it through the week."

(Dance for the Akatsuki, little pup, Sasori drawled.)

Sakura drew in a silent, shaky breath.

"Don't you have a friend in Suna?" Kiba asked, angling his head towards the bathroom. "Kankuro, right? The guy who made your arm. You think he could help us?"

"Regardless if he wants to, the Godaime Kazekage's reign was the beginning of the strongest allyship between Suna and Konoha," Shino replied when Sakura didn't. "Wind Country is just as bad as staying in Fire Country, and even if wind is largest in terms of square meters, Suna-nin conducts such frequent sweeps that we can't stay in the same place longer than two weeks, at most. Not to mention we would have to traverse through near-constant sandstorms to get from location to location." He glanced at the bed as he held green hands to Kiba's chest and back. "Tenzo-san will need longer to recover and a less harsh environment to make the journey."

Wrapped in swathes of bandages, Tenzo quietly breathed.

"Would it help that Kankuro's their Ambassador?" Kiba tried.

Kurenai shook her head. "Even worse. People have seen him and Sakura together, and if we're found in or near Suna, it could start an international scandal where a governmental authority could be accused of harboring wanted criminals."

Kiba ran a hand over his face as a few kikai crawled over his shoulder. He could feel the medical chakra winding through his system, poking and prodding at sore muscles and flickering under the seal on his shoulder. Wanted criminals. Right, that's what they were now. "How... How about Kumo?"

Shino sighed. "Kumo?"

"They said we could go back—"

"Just because they may allow us in doesn't mean we should take the chance. Why? We were prisoners and our friends... they went behind the Raikage's back to let us go," Shino frowned. "We have allies, but we can't go to them. Not for this."

(Nowhere to run, Sasori laughed. Nowhere to hide.)

Akamaru raised his head slightly at the sight of Sakura's legs curling closer to herself.

"Besides, Kumo is too far away of a trek for Tenzo-san to make," he noted as he hoisted himself up to his feet to walk the few steps to Kurenai's chair. One glowing hand on her chest, the other on her back. "We need somewhere relatively close, non-Fire affilia... ted...?"

He trailed off, staring blankly at his teacher. She placed a hand on top of one of his own, her brows creasing.

"I..." He blinked. "... I didn't know you were pregnant."

"I-I'm pregnant?" Kurenai stammered.

"She's pregnant?!" Sakura and Kiba shouted, the former throwing herself forward until she was half-sprawled in the bathroom doorway. Akamaru squeaked out an alarmed woof.

Kiba scrambled to his feet, curry forgotten as his legs started pacing. "Okay, okay, okay, okay." He clasped his hands together and pressed it to his mouth. "Okay. So. We need to find a secure place for Tenzo-san and Kurenai-sensei 'cause... fuck, we're rogues. We're rogues." He locked his hands behind his head. "Fuck. Okay. First things first, we need to pick a place."

Shino pressed his fingers against his forehead. "We'd have to lay low in a small village—"

"—where we can avoid Konoha-nin—"

"—with a viable medical facility—"

"—and stay in for the months sensei can't travel—"

"—that's both safe and secure for all of us, especially Tenzo-san and sensei—"

Sakura watched the muted chaos in this inn room in this tourist town in Meadow Country. She could taste the desperation in the air on the back of her tongue; right where the seal lay, right where everything started to go wrong.

Kurenai was frozen in her seat, eyes on her two boys as she held her middle. Shino and Kiba were frenzied in tandem, speaking all obvious things but never finding the answer they needed—Suna has friends but would turn us in, Kumo loves us but they could kill us, Taki isn't an option they would kill any type of Konoha-nin on sight, Tani might work but it's sandwiched between Fire and Wind Country and bows to both, Iwa would gut us, why the hell did we run near Kusa in the first place—

(You're Akatsuki's, you're Akatsuki's, you're Akatsuki's, Sasori chanted.)

Sakura paled as her stomach grew queasy.

(You're Akatsuki's, you're Akatsuki's, you're Akatsuki's.)

She dug her fingers into the flesh of her right arm and Akamaru took a careful step towards her with a low, questioning whine.

When she was three, she asked her father why she'd never seen the moon or the stars or the sun. She asked why the rain never stopped. She asked if teaching her to throw kunai was part of a game. She asked why she needed to protect herself from people that tried to kill him.

She asked him if she would ever get to wear a pretty cloak like his. Her father hid a sad smile and told her, I hope you never do.

Sakura had always thought herself as a practical sort of person. Maybe it was because her father had been her best friend and she'd never known another person her age until Kiba. Or maybe day in and day out, excellence had been expected of her from Konan-san and Kakuzu-san and Leader-sama. She had to be strong or else she'd die, she had to be brave or else the monsters in Heaven's Gate Lake would swallow her whole.

Or at least, that's what her father told her happened to kids who didn't eat their vegetables.

And she had always thought she would have no one to look out for except her father who knew about survival better than she ever would.

Then Kiba first approached her when she was seven. Shino sacrificed his eye for them and Tenzo took their side when she was twelve. Kurenai cried for them through sobbed apologies for hours when she was fourteen.

And now she was fifteen and they were all in the same room, terrified for the future.

And her?

Sakura huffed a humorless laugh to herself as she hauled herself onto unsteady feet.

She was terrified too; terrified that she wasn't three years old anymore, and more than terrified that for everyone in this room, she would wrangle the moon and the stars and the sun.

(You're Akatsuki's, you're Akatsuki's, you're Akatuski's.)

Sakura clenched her fists, and yielded.

She was Akatsuki's.

"Storm," she announced firmly, loud enough to carry over the room and causing the conversation to fall down to a hush. Kiba halted his steps and turned around, wrinkling his nose.

"Huh?"

"We're going to Storm Country," she said. "It's right next to Meadow, not allied with Fire, has a hospital capable of taking care of Tenzo-san, and will have safe enough arrangements for us to recuperate and for sensei to be comfortable in her pregnancy." She straightened her posture and crossed her arms. "The other choices pose too much of a risk for at least one of us. Storm will be safe, I'll make sure of it."

There was an elephant in the room, and even if Kurenai couldn't clearly point it out, she could see it in the apprehension in Shino's shoulders and the nervous tension that hung off Kiba's face.

"What's in Storm?" Kurenai questioned, because it was odd that Sakura hadn't mentioned it in the beginning and, truthfully, Storm wasn't a bad idea. Fire was never friendly with them and they never asked for help with their tail between their legs; as far as she knew, their shinobi and Konoha's shinobi were sure to keep a wide berth of each other unless they couldn't help it. They were heavily isolationist, she recalled. A hub of criminals and refugees.

And Sakura met her eyes, green and sure and defeated. "My father."

"Nope!" Kiba refused immediately. His arms shot up into an 'x' shape. "Nu-uh. I don't have a death wish, I'm okay with never meeting your dad, no thank you. Any other options?"

"I wasn't giving you an option," she said, ignoring the way he sputtered.

"You father aside, have you forgotten his... management?" Shino put out hesitantly. "How do you know that they won't kill us on sight? That they would even give us the time of day, considering we were previously Konoha-nin?" His worry deepened. "And would they even begin to help us if we decide not to, ah, help along with whatever aims they have?"

Sakura avoided their eyes. "I already know too much, and once they see I've become more capable than I was when I was seven, then they'll have use of me for something. You won't have to worry about anything—I'll make sure one of the conditions of me being reinstated is that you all will be left alone."

"That's..." Kiba and Shino exchanged startled glances, and the former plowed on. "Sakura, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"What—you!" he exclaimed. "When we get there, what are they going to do to you?!"

She pressed her lips together. "It doesn't matter."

"Bullshit." Shino stalked up to her. "Don't think I've forgotten that one of your father's colleagues nearly killed you not too long ago—"

Kurenai held a hand over her mouth. Akamaru tucked his tail between his legs.

"—and you're willing to walk into a place full of them for what?" He shook his head, jerky and short. "No, we're not going. Not if it means you're going to get hurt."

"It's for your security," she disagreed.

"It will be your suicide!"

"Sakura, look," Kiba pleaded. He grasped her upper arm and looked up into that face etched in stone—stupid height, stupid pack member, stupid lack of self-preservation— "Storm's... it's too risky. You never told the whole story, but based on what you did tell us? They can kill you and not give a single shit about it. And your d-dad," he stuttered, "even if he does help us and whatever, you've called his boss 'Leader-sama.' That's—That's a pretty big red flag for me that he scares you enough that you won't even say his name."

Yet, Sakura stood tall, eyes cold and face blank, and they knew they were very quickly losing all grounds to change her mind if they hadn't lost it already.

"I don't care," she said, and dropped his head in his hands as he smothered a strangled groan. "I'm not changing my mind. We're going."

But Shino pushed. He had to, he needed to, because he wasn't going to lose someone else in his life. Not pack. Not Sakura, especially not to the hands of the ones that ran her through or left her to Konoha without another word.

"You won't be free," he tried. "These people—I might not know who they are, but I know that nothing about them is good. We're not just going to sit back and let you do this to yourself—"

"You will."

"I won't," he bit. "I won't let you do this. I won't let you put your life on the line."

"I've already made my decision."

"You're going to have to rethink it, then!"

"There's nothing to rethink."

"Sakura!"

"It's our best option."

"We can find other ones!"

"We won't."

"Your freedom—"

Sakura snaps.

"If I wanted my freedom, I should have stayed dead!"

It was like everything in the room... dropped—Kiba's shoulders, Shino's resolve, Akamaru's head, Kurenai's shock, Sakura's patience.

Everything in this tiny inn room simply stilled.

"Look at us." Sakura gestured around her, to the side table and the lamp and the old chair and her team, her pack. She gestured to their sensei who wouldn't be able to exert herself in a few months and to the bed with the half-dead man lying in it. "Tenzo needs a hospital, sensei's pregnant, Kiba and I will end up running ourselves into the ground, and after you use up all of what that soldier pill had, you'll drop." Shino looked away. "At best we have days, and I'm not about to let everything we've done go to waste." She smiled, wobbly but reassuring, and Kiba felt the tell-tale prick of tears behind his eyes. "And me? The longer I run away from them, the longer I'm delaying the day they find me and bring me back."

(You're so, so afraid, Sasori whispered.)

Sakura shut her eyes for a moment.

'I know.'

She stepped back. "Right now, your safety is all that matters to me. And if that means going back to them..." She swallowed and let her arms fall to her sides. "If this is what it takes, it's a small price to pay." Then quieter, softer, so painstakingly vulnerable, "... I would do anything for you. I thought you guys knew that."

Kiba squeezed his eyes shut, one or two stray tears dripping down his face as Shino lowered himself to the ground to take a seat where he just stood about a foot away from a subdued Akamaru.

And Kurenai—Kurenai had nothing to say. She still knew next to nothing after everything had upturned, but one thing was clear;

Sakura had signed her own death warrant for them, and Kiba and Shino couldn't stop her.

Sakura took reluctant steps towards the door and laid one hand on the door knob. "I'm going to step out for some air. Maybe run another perimeter," she said. "And tonight," she twisted the knob and pulled it open, "we'll leave for Amegakure."

She disappeared into the hallway and shut the door behind her with a soft click.

:: ::

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