Dreamt

Chapter 1

AN: This is a revised version. Beta-read by La Moonlight Lily.

After getting so much wonderful and insightful feedback, I decided to revise this story a little bit. I tried addressing the issues pointed out in the comments (the biggest thanks here goes to Marquise de Nile who dedicated so much of her energy to helping me out with this story). I hope that the additional scenes make the story clearer and more enjoyable.

Some PSA for the ones who read it already before: major additions will be in chapters 3, 4, 8 and 13. And the ending of the story (chapters 15-16) will be altered.

Please tell me what you think, and to those who read it before revision - I'm so curious if you liked the changes! So, enjoy!

Sakura dreamed of a battlefield, dense with fighters surrounding her, and of a man standing apart, watching.

Then she dreamed of this man fighting, carnage around him. It kept alternating – her being a watcher from a distance, separated from it all, and her participating in the battle. And whenever she dreamed, that man was there.

One night as Sakura watched him fight, he turned abruptly and gazed at her. Sharingan spinning, he saw her.

The next night when she was fighting, as she turned to place another blow, she suddenly saw the man at an arm's length.

"Who are you? Identify yourself," he demanded.

She woke up, covered in sweat.

She went to talk to Ino about. Ino took it lightly, put blame on the combination of war traumas and Sasuke being back in the camp.

"Isn't that man Sasuke, by any chance?" Ino presumed.

"No, for sure not!" protested Sakura.

"From how you describe him, he seems kind of familiar" teased Ino further.

"Not at all! I've never seen someone like that, I don't even know how I can dream of such a thing!"

"What do you mean…?"

"The way he fights – his every move has a purpose. As if he had a hundred years of experience…"

"You sure watch him carefully enough," Ino laughed. "I bet he's handsome, that's why! Is he, is he?"

Sakura shut her mouth firmly. Ino was so not getting the point!

"Oh, he is! Even more good-looking than Sasuke?"

"Ino, I'm upset and you are not helping! These dreams make me scared. I don't want to have them anymore!"

In the end Ino invited her to sleep over and the dream did not come that night.

But the next night, Sakura returned to the battlefield, and there he was again in the midst of the fight. Suddenly, instead of being a spectator, Sakura was in it, had to block and dodge the blows to keep herself alive. The man jumped towards her. For a brief instant she thought he would strike. There was battle fever in his eyes, his face was covered with blood, clearly not his own. He moved behind her though, their backs touching. He was covering her back! Coming blows she parried instinctively.

Next night she was right there, arm to arm with the man. He adjusted his fighting style to hers.

"Who are you? Why are you in my dreams?" he demanded. His voice was calm but somehow did not invite much of a discussion.

"Why are you in mine?" Sakura blurted out, not one to be ordered around in her own dream.

"It is my dream and you are being a hindrance in my fight's enjoyment."

"Doesn't seem like it to me! You're voluntarily covering my back. Besides – I am covering yours…"

"And this is supposed to be an advantage?"

Sakura flinched. Suddenly his clone was in front of her, pressing the tip of the sword to her vital point. A vital point aligned directly with a vital point of the original leaning against her back.

"So how is it an advantage having someone so weak guarding my back? Anyone could pierce right through you to get me."

Sakura stopped moving. He got her. Quite in a different way than he intended though… Karin's face, so hopeful, looking at Sasuke to free her from Danzo's grasp was in front of her eyes, filling up whole of her vision. And this dreadful moment when Sasuke, her beloved Sasuke, Karin's beloved Sasuke, simply pierced through her... Sasuke tried to kill her, more than once, but somehow it was this incident that haunted her most.

The clone before her halted. She kept staring at the ground, shoulders pathetically low.

"Hey, what is with you?" the clone asked.

She almost didn't hear him.

"Hey!" The man apparently didn't like being ignored. He grabbed her arm and shook her. "Come on, don't ruin the fun. I was just teasing you."

Silence.

"Have you seen something like that? Did it happen to you?"

Sakura looked up. It was Karin's face that was before her eyes, not the black-haired man's. "I've seen someone important to me pierce through his team-mate to get to the enemy."

"And did he succeed?" The man was mildly interested. No answer. "Was this person an Uchiha by any chance?"

Sakura's eyes widened in shock.

"Well then, I would advise you to choose your important people more wisely…"

Sakura woke up. Crying.

That her own dream would berate her like this. "Choose you important people more wisely." As much as she hated the thought, it was true – it would be prudent to choose more wisely…

Since Sasuke joined the Allied Forces a couple of weeks ago, he hung around only with Naruto and almost never spoke a word. He was so endlessly distant, as if walking behind some glass curtain.

Sakura thought about Karin again. She had it worse. As much as Sakura didn't want to admit it, Karin loved Sasuke as much as she did and was probably closer to him by now. And actually did receive a fatal blow.

A couple of days ago she almost stepped onto Karin, crouched somewhere on the outskirts of the camp crying hysterically, almost howling, but so silently as if she was choking herself. Sakura knelt next to her, tried to calm her down, get her to speak. What came out was a half incoherent story of Sasuke coming to heal his injuries. Sakura felt a pang of jealousy.

"I always loved it," Karin had said, "it was painful, it has to be, this is the thing about my jutsu. But with him it was wonderful as well… But this time… it was…" Karin didn't finish. Because she vomited.

Yes, Sakura was better off. She had her family, her friends, her village. She had possibilities, other possibilities. Like those she always heard about: "You should get yourself some nice guy. Someone that will appreciate you the way you deserve it". She cringed internally. No nice guys. No thanks, no decent, nice guys. If she is ever to "get herself a guy" he will have presence enough to make her go crazy about him. It is not like there are no other powerful, charismatic shinobi other than Sasuke and Naruto. Sure there are. And she can fall head over heels about someone again, given he is impressive enough. She can, right? Right…?

Next night she was back on the battlefield, right next to black-haired man. They were slicing the enemies coming from every side, endlessly.

"So. Now you will explain me who or what you are." The black-haired man's voice was casual but very unpleasant in the same time.

"What?! What?! I'm a person, don't you what me here!" Sakura was abashed. Insulted by a dream…

"That is not so certain. You might indeed be a jutsu-caster that appeared into my mind. But you can be only a form that he chose for his jutsu. A puppet, if you will."

Sakura was speechless.

"I am aware of a clan capable of entering a conscious mind. I have never heard of a technique that could accomplish it in a dream. Even more the reason to use it against me, though," he continued.

Sakura regained her speech.

"Just screw you. I will not tolerate insults in my own dream." She jumped to get away from the man. She would wait out until she wakes up somewhere else on the battlefield, pummelling some poor buggers to the pulp. Yes, this sounded like a fine plan.

Only in the middle of the jump, she hit something in mid-air and fell painfully on the ground. The obstacle was a semi-translucent blue wall. She looked around – the blue wall was surrounding them. Above her head were oblong, curved shapes that looked like… ribs of some giant… Susano'o. She was inside a Susano'o!

"I'd rather that you stay until we exhaust the topic."

She pointed her fist to the wall, punched it. It didn't even budge.

"Release it!" She screamed. "Release this idiotic, show-offy Susano'o and let me go!"

The man raised his eyebrow. Did she say too much? And then, she was pulled up as Susano'o started into the sky. Sakura felt like her stomach stayed somewhere at the level of her knees as they kept climbing up and up. The battlefield was blue and getting smaller very quickly.

She turned to the Uchiha. He stood there very calmly, almost disinterested, with his arms crossed on the chest. She saw chakra flowing from him to the Susano'o. Chakra from his Mangekyō eyes. But he didn't seem weakened as Sasuke always was. Nor were his eyes bleeding.

He noticed her gaze. She felt compelled to say something.

"Your eyes - there is no strain on them... How...? Is it because it is a dream?"

"This is the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. Superior to any other. There is no jutsu that would put strain on me." He sounded all haughty and self-possessed.

But this did not matter. Because in that moment, everything clicked. Finally, the pieces came together: Sharingan, old-fashioned armor, the face that seemed so vaguely familiar. Apparently, the sculptor in the Valley of the End did a decent job. Uchiha Madara in his full battle glory was in front of her. Uchiha Madara with whom they were at war just right now. Trapping her in Susano'o and about to interrogate her.

She backed off, touched the wall of Susano'o's with her behind. She kept pushing against it with all her force, trying to get away as far as possible, to get away, to get out.

"Let me out. Let me out! LET ME OUT!

"What happened to you all of the sudden?"

"LET ME OUT!" This was not helping. Hysterically screaming in the presence of a world-destroyer wannabe was not going to do her much good. Plus, she was plummeting deeper and deeper into panic. She needed to get herself under a grip. "Breath, remember breathing" Sakura reminded herself. One needed this breathing business to stay alive.

"Hn..? If you're done making noise, then answer the question."

Sakura swallowed.

"I've just realized who you are."

"Would be a proper reaction if you really didn't know beforehand. But you were surely briefed very carefully before your mission, jutsu-caster."

"I am not..."

She couldn't finish because Susano'o suddenly plunged. They were landing in the middle of a yard of an old-fashioned mansion. Actually, a whole complex of mansions.

Several meters above the ground, Susano'o disappeared. Madara flipped in mid-air and landed in a crouch on the porch. He immediately assumed a nonchalant sitting pose, one leg hanging, the other bent and his head propped on his palm. A chill went down her spine - he looked like a cat sitting in his favorite spot for hours. Observing the prey. She never liked cats.

Sakura looked around. Quickly localizing the gate, she bolted towards it.

"As I said before, I'd rather have you stay. I don't need to describe all the ways in which I could immobilize you, I suppose?"

He didn't. Sakura had enough imagination.

"So, jutsu-caster, will you finally introduce yourself? No? No great need, I know enough. Judging from your dress you could be from either Suna or Konoha, but the kunai type you use narrows it down. The crest on your back doesn't tell me a thing, but how could it? The Senju adopted all kinds of petty clans into the village. Clan of Thousand Hands... Clan of Mongrels they should rather call themselves. Your chakra control and keen interest in the status of my eyes point to a med-nin. Which makes it puzzling, because why would they risk a medic on such a mission?"

A pause and a piercing look. Sakura wondered what would come next.

"Furthermore, unhappily in love with an Uchiha that happens to be an exquisite bastard," he finished with a laughter.

With every word, Sakura felt her heart sinking deeper. How could he deduce so much about her so quickly and so accurately? She felt naked and humiliated. Like an open book and he was turning the pages.

"That seal... Counting the generations down, you can be either Mito's great-granddaughter or great-great-granddaughter..."

Sakura smirked internally. Finally he got something wrong. Apparently, the smirk was visible from the outside though, because Madara laughed again.

"Oh, I got it wrong. But not entirely wrong." He narrowed his eyes. "Not blood-related... But certainly somehow connected... An apprentice to Uzumaki Mito's female descendant, perhaps?"

Sakura's face was pure terror.

"So, let's recapitulate: Konoha med-nin trained by Hashirama's kin, running after a traitorous Uchiha. Now that we know each other so well, all that is missing is a name..."

Sakura wanted to hide.

"YOUR NAME." Even the mockery of friendliness was gone from his voice.

"Haruno Sakura."

"So, as we have it cleared, Sakura, go and tell your superiors that you have failed... in whatever you've actually been doing... But since it probably is the last time we see each other, how about a small spar? My Taijutsu against all you have there, Yin seal and all..."

He jumped into the courtyard.

"It will be fun, I promise."

Sakura fell into a defensive stance. As he charged, she thought how rarely she spoke with her parents recently, and when was the last time she told them she loved them...

She woke up screaming.