Stream of past

Waiting, waiting, Itachi when you come home I'll be waiting

"Never thought I'd see your pastel mug again, Haruno." said Ibiki as he led her inside an interrogation room. "You gonna make this easy on me or will I have to break out my good knife and start chopping fingers?"

"And here I thought you missed me, Ibiki-san..." said Sakura.

Ibiki paused as he pulled out a thick file. "I did." Sakura's eyes widened, but Ibiki continued on before she could say anything. "From the things we gathered from the ROOT hideout, the elders had to have been aware of what Shimura was doing. Do you have any new intel to offer?"

"Well, they definitely knew that the ROOT existed and what Danzo was doing, including all the illegal missions he was sending his agents on. Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu also supplied him occasionally with orphans for his cause, but I doubt they knew anything about his arm or Shisui Uchiha's eye."

"Can you elaborate on the orphan part?" said Ibiki as he opened a journal and started writing down.

"Did you know elder Homura is behind over 70% of the human trafficking cases in Konoha?" Ibiki's face remained impassive but his chakra spiked slightly. It was a lesser known fact that Ibiki and his little brother had been rescued from a trafficking ring by Konoha as a child. It was why he joined the academy and became a ninja. "Yeah, I know Tsunade-shishō and Inuzuka Tsume had been cracking down on the cases since she became Hokage, but Homura is a slippery bastard who has done this for years. Not to mention, Danzo would aid him from time to time in exchange for candidates to add to his collection. I um...I was one of the people helping smuggle them in." said Sakura, ashamed.

"Do you know the identity of these people?"

"No. I can tell you their ROOT codenames however." Ibiki nodded and Sakura gave him over 12 codenames.

"How did Mitokado sneak them in?"

"Danzo cleared out the escape tunnel from the west side that had collapsed during the Kyūbi attack. He offered it to elder Homura as a way for him to continue his business. As I said, in exchange he asked for a few kids once in a while."

"Do you know what happened to these people?"

"I believe they might have been sold on the black market but I have no proof of that. All I know is what happened to the ROOT cadets."

"Alright, what about Utatane?"

"Well, as the person in charge of the Konoha orphanage, elder Koharu was able to ignore or dismiss any missing person reports. Any orphan Danzo desired, Koharu would hand to him."

"Do you know if Shimura was behind the poor funding of the orphanages?"

"No, I don't."

"Do you know if Utatane knew anything about what Mitokado and Shimura were doing?"

"No, I don't."

The interrogation continued for 2 more hours and Sakura spilled the beans on anything she knew about Konoha's dear elders. After it was done, Kakashi came to pick her up. He offered her his elbow and she wrapped both hands around it. Since Danzo's death Sakura was put on house arrest until Tsunade could finish the trial against Homura and Koharu, and Itachi returned to the village. She was not allowed to interact with anyone aside from Tsunade, Shizune and Kakashi who was acting as her guard. A side effect of this was that the three of them bore the brunt of her affection, since Sakura spent her entire time plastered to their side like a leech. Not that any of them seemed to mind, in fact Tsunade and Kakashi actively encouraged it. Tsunade because she knew it would be good for her mental health and Kakashi because he just missed her. Look, she hasn't experienced any type of affection for 3 whole years, so she was a bit clingy, sue her.