Her Destiny

Explanation

"Yeah. There were some things that came up," Sakura muttered.

"Like what?" Minato asked, curious.

"Well, Danzo and the elders if we are being completely honest," Shikamaru explained, a dark look passing over his face.

"But Danzo wouldn't do anything to hurt the village," Hiruzen tried to reason.

Shikamaru snorted. "No, he'd only hurt the shinobi in the village."

Hiruzen looked at the young man, alarmed.

"Sakura was approached a while ago, by Kabuto, who brought her hear so that she could speak to Orochimaru," Shikamaru started, taking in a calming breath. "The elders found out that she had left the village with Kabuto, and they detained me, as I had the most recent contact with her. They. . . interrogated me . . . for a day and a half, before finally deciding that I didn't know anything. It took me another day to fully heal, with the help of Hinata. She's not Sakura, but she can heal most things. We decided, that when Sakura came back, we were going to leave the village, though at that point we didn't know coming here was an option. When she came back and told us about Orochimaru's offer, we immediately jumped at the opportunity, and we were gone the next day."

"Danzo attempted to send ROOT operatives after you," Sai added.

"He did, did he?" Sakura asked. "And what happened to them?"

"I killed them, of course," Sai stated. "I wasn't going to let them get anywhere near you. He sent two squads, but I intercepted them and eliminated the threat."

Sakura nodded.

"ROOT was disbanded," Hiruzen said.

"Why don't you explain that, Sai?" Sakura offered, gesturing to the four Kage's.

"What do you want me to say, Sakura-san?" he asked, clearly confused.

Sakura sighed. "Explain how you were raised, Sai," she explained, before turning to the four men. "This is Sai. You'll have to bear through his social ineptitude, he's only just starting to recognized what emotions are. He is a former ROOT operative."

"That isn't completely true, Ugly. I have always recognized emotions, I just don't know how to express them."

He turned to the Kages. "Hello, I am Sai, a former ROOT ANBU. Danzo-sama took me from an orphanage when I was very young and had me trained. We had the emotions beat out of us. Our training included being dropped in the desert for a week with our partner with a canteen each. Another time we were thrown in a frozen lake, had the water refrozen over us, and then were made to find a way out. When we got out we had to fight each other until one of us fell unconscious. As the final test, we were made to fight each other to the death. That was how the last of our emotions were stamped out."

Tobirama's eyes widened in alarm, before narrowing as he whirled on Hiruzen and Minato. "You allowed this to happen?"

Minato threw his arms up in the air, backing away from the enraged man. "I was only in office for a few months before the Kyuubi attack that I ended up sacrificing myself to seal away."

Tobirama rounded on Hiruzen. "Well? What's your excuse, Saru?"

"I didn't think that he was a danger to anyone, and when I found out about ROOT I told him to disband it."

"No danger? I know for a fact that he attempted to have you assassinated on several occasions," Sakura sniped.

Hiruzen sighed. "I thought-"

He was interrupted when a throat cleared behind them. Eyes snapped to the noise, to find Shisui standing there.

"Shisui?" Hiruzen asked.

Shisui gave the man a bland look. "Do you know what Danzo did to me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Itachi and I could have easily stopped the Coup, but Danzo wouldn't have it. He made me meet him, alone, and I was ambushed. He took one of my eyes, saying that the Uchiha had no business having such a powerful doujutsu, and attempted to take the other and have me killed, but I managed to escape his soldiers, so that I could meet Itachi. My only option, at that point, was to give Itachi my remaining eye and make sure my body was never found. I threw myself off the cliff overlooking the river with the full intention of dying, but Orochimaru witnessed everything and managed to stabilize me and move me here."

Hiruzen looked sick.

"He also told Itachi that if he didn't kill his own clan, that he would have ROOT do it, and there would be no survivors. Itachi did it to save that little shit, Sasuke," Sakura finished.

"If you had taken feelings out of the equation, Lord Third, all of this could have been avoided," Sai explained. "Up until he was taken to interrogation, he was plotting the assassination of the Fifth. He even attempted it, when Tsunade-sama confronted him."

"He did WHAT?!" Sakura screamed, her fist punching through the desk.