I stretched. A new day, a new adventure with my… Oh yeah. They were dead. I sat up, pushing up against the tree to stand. The last of them, Naruto died only last week or so. Tears came to my eyes again. I pushed them away.
"I'm stronger than this. Naruto wouldn't want me glooming over him." I stated to myself. There was a rustle in the bushes. I took out a kunai and slowly walked over to them. Three shuriken popped out, barely missing me. I tackled whatever was in the bushes. I gasped in surprise. It was Mandara Uchiha.
"What the hell do you want!?" I said, happy her mask was still on. I hadn't taken it off since after Naruto died. Madara stood, but I could tell he was in pain. "I thought you died… Sasuke killed you." Madara shook his head at this.
"Yet, I had another soul in me to use as the one who died." He said as it was the most simply thing in the world. "I-I, and no one else, have a request."
"No." I said, before he had any other thing to say. "Why would I do or even listen to anything you had to say." He chuckled.
"Ah, I will give you something worthwhile." He said seriously, although his chuckles still echoed in my head. "All you need to do is heal me." This time I laughed.
"Ha, what will you give me that would make me heal you?" My laughs ended short as he interrupted me.
"This scroll." He said as his hand entered his pouch, gripping a thought to be scroll. Out it came, colored red with a stripe of white. On that stripe it had the kanji for tsukanoma, Brief Time, 短時間. "This scroll will take all the pain of loneliness away." I was silent for a moment.
"What is it!? It will kill me, right?" I yelled out to him.
"Maybe in this time, but it will bring your soul back."
"Back?"
"Back in time, of course. Even if you heal me here, you can always change the future the next time around." He replied to my question. Again, I was silent, but this time out of shock. I started stuttering a little, then stated into his face fully. Seeing this he deactivated his Mangekyou Sharingan. He was trying to show me he wasn't going to hurt me, I presumed. I stopped stuttering and looked down at the ground, thinking. "Tell me your answer by the end of tomorrow's morning." At that he disappeared. I sat to think and soon fell asleep although it was still only morning today.
Another rustle of leaves awoke me. As I looked around, I saw a fire going and some small fish on a piece of bark above the fire. And there he was. Mandara.
"You awake?"
"You still here? I thought I got until morning to answer you." I ignored him. Again his annoying chuckle.
"You do, but I don't want you running away till then. It took awhile to find you…" He turned, sharingan still deactivated, laugh ending. "You want some?" He pointed to the now fully cooked fish. He was being nice. Weird.
"What's with you?" I stood, walking over to him. I sat next to him and he handed me a fish on a stick. "You're being a little too nice. Actually why are you being nice?"
"Heh, I'm not a total bastard. I was wrongly proven evil and banned from the village." He replied calmly, serious. He stood, taking a fish and started walking away. "See you in the morning." He disappeared, again. He was repetitive.
"Yeah, yeah. See you." I said to him under my breath, although he was gone. I checked the fish for poison then took a bite. …Delicious… Although I would never say to his face. He cooked it just right. Well, I guess that's what you get from a man that lived a hundred years or so.
Later that night as I fell asleep the last words that came off my lips were "Yes, yes I will."
The next morning, approximately 5 am, he came.
"Well?" He said, then became silent, waiting for an answer. I looked up at him, he sharingan was on again. Perhaps he was fighting.
"I…I will. Sit." I said. As he did, in front of the burned-out fire pit, I walked to sit in front of him. "So? What will happen when I go to the past? Will I be weak again?" I put my hands to his chest, next to his heart, pouring out my chakra to heal him. "Am I going to be in the shadows of everyone?"
As the healing began, he flinched. Sighing, he answered me. "Sadly, but yes. Your soul is going to be the only thing transferred. Then again, you can train harder, changing the future." A few hours passed in silence after that. As the healing finished he moved making her tense. Pulling out the scroll from his pouch, he handed it to her. "That's enough. I can heal the rest myself. Here. And… If you want to keep the mask put it on the scroll as your transporting. You seem to fancy it." Sakura touched her mask. Her anbu mask. Taking it off, she smiled.
"This is the only reminder I have of Naruto and my other friends. Here." I handed to him. "You keep it as a reminder of me. As a friend. I don't need it anymore." He hesitated, then took it. Looking up, he said it. The only thing I would have never thought to hear out of the mouth of a criminal.
"Thank you." And then he was gone. I nodded, as if he was still there. My only friend left in the future. Maybe I could stop him in the past. Stop him from killing the jinchuuriki. I opened the scroll. It told me to write the year I wanted to be brought back and my name. Only one name was on it right now. Mandara's. I wrote my name, then date. I used a kunai to draw blood from my finger and used that to write and then drew blood from my palm. I put my hand print and there was a big puff. I felt detached from my body. When the smoke cleared I was in my old room, hand still bloody and the scroll under it. It worked.