Tsunade nodded. “And Jiraiya is your father. If the test says so. But you fit the age and the model. I’m almost positive you’re my daughter.”

Marisa could not make Sakura any more efficient at the test. She wanted so badly to be told that the Harunos weren’t her parents. She made sure nothing was contaminated so there would be no doubt the results. Then she showed Ken her bruises.

“They did this to me last night,” she told him. “They never lay a hand on me before. They just yelled at me all the time.”

Everyone took information and Itachi got up when he saw Sakura getting tired. “Until we sort this all out, I’d like for Sakura to stay at my house. She can’t be trusted to stay here if you hurt her so much in a single night. Sasuke, take Sakura upstairs and help her get some of her things together.”

“Come on, Sakura,” he replied, tapping her shoulder and helping her up.

She took a few changes of clothes, a razor to shave, a spare blade, her cell phone and her school books. Sasuke waited for her and helped her put it in a duffel and swung it over his shoulder. They walked down to learn from Jiraiya that Itachi took the bike so Sakura and Sasuke could drive home in the car.

She laughed softly as she saw how far apart their houses were--the expanse of the street, twenty-five rich houses away. “Thank you, for everything,” Sakura whispered.

He shrugged. “Just one rule. You can’t cut while you’re at my house. I don’t want to wake up and find you dead, splattered in blood, okay?”

She froze. No one knew. No one. “How do you know?” she asked.

He snorted. “You’re not as sneaky as you think. I caught your wristbands soaking a few days ago. And then of curse, there were those times you slit them in the woods. Were you trying to kill yourself?” he replied.

She shrugged. “I don’t even know anymore. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I go that one more centimeter. I want to sometimes.”

Sasuke placed a hand over her hand. “Don’t. Not when there are people that care about you. We can help.”

“Why do you even care?” she asked.

“I don’t know. The first time I saw you, I pegged you as this geek I would never want to know. But then I came to some soccer games and I heard your parents, and I talked with Jiraiya when there was nothing better to do. I started to figure out things about you. Like that you were really this jaded girl with nothing to save her from herself.”

“So you think I’m being childish?” she asked. “I’m not. I took care of myself. There was no possible way that I would have been able to get help. I took care of myself doing the only thing possible. You saw what happened when I tried to stand up for myself.”

Sasuke sighed. “But now you don’t have to worry about it. You have a whole net of people ready to catch you if you fall. And everyone loves you. They would never let you get hurt again. You have a family now.”

Sakura sighed and got out of the car, huffing when Sasuke refused to let her carry her own duffel.

“So, how did Tsunade and Jiraiya figure out I might be their daughter?” she asked as they walked into the house. “I don’t look like either of them. I’m pretty sure hair color is an inherited trait. Neither of them have pink hair.”

Sasuke laughed. “Jiraiya’s family all had pink hair. He dyed it when he got into middle school so people wouldn’t stop questioning his sexuality. And they knew what their daughter looked like before she was abducted. Pink hair, green eyes, infectious smile…at one point they told everyone she had a wide forehead, but the police unit tried to show what she would look like if she lived to be seventeen, and the forehead was normal-sized.”

Sakura put a hand to her forehead and gasped. It was always a sore-spot for her. Everyone made fun of how big it was. She never realized it helped to identify her as an abducted child. Hell, she never knew there was even an AMBER alert out there for her.

“First day I saw you was seventh grade. I freaked out at first. There you were, Jiraiya and his wife’s daughter. A few years before that, the police thought they found you. DNA didn’t match up. We’re pretty sure it was the real Haruno girl if they wanted to get their DNA tested.

“I told Jiraiya, and we tried to prepare Tsunade for the shock when we realized you were coming into her junior class. It’s been torture for everyone to watch you go through all of that, knowing we couldn’t help. And then finally, Tsunade couldn’t take it.”

Sakura started to cry silently and she was shocked to feel Sasuke hug her. “She really loves you, Sakura. You’re lucky to have people like her.”

She smiled. “Yeah. Thank you…for everything.”

Sasuke shrugged. “You’re welcome.”