Summary: Four years have passed since the end of Fourth Shinobi World War and with Naruto's long anticipated return to Konoha, Sakura faces a choice that could change her entire life. However the gathering black clouds on horizon give the feeling that an as yet unseen enemy is still out there, ready to strike and end the peaceful days of Naruto and his friends.

Please Read Description Below!

From the Author: I've rated this story as one for older audiences as in the future there may be lemons, violence, gore and bloody scenes. I started writing this fiction short after 586th chapter of "Naruto" manga and it may contain a lot of spoilers.

This fiction is also my translation of my own story from polish language and the original you can find on my profile uder the title "Czasy Pokoju".

Now I invite you to read my story, which I hope you'll enjoy.

And most important thing for now

Fic have many errors in grammar and typos, and so I just had to find Beta-san! Odmonkey -san agreed to help and here's first chapter after He used His magic!

Disclaimer: "Naruto" and all respective character's belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Shueisha Inc.!


Prologue

Night was slowly brightening as the rays of the rising sun peered languidly over the horizon, changing the dark navy blue sky to a paler colour. Many of those lying in the grassy meadow surrounded by tall trees from all sides didn't even notice this fact though, being busier with their wounds than their surroundings. Over and over again screams of agony could be heard as medics tried to realign the broken arms and legs of the wounded. More often loud curses could be heard, along with orders which flew above the dead or soon to be dead. Many of them didn't survive the night; the count of bodies in the meadow rose instead of fell. Not only the wounded were giving up. Medic nins and shinobis patrolling the area had lost hope long before the first stars had shown up in the skies the night before, when they saw their friends and family members die right in front their very eyes. The revolt would have been finished long before, if not for the main manager of the field hospital, General Tataki, and the head commander of all the medic nins - Shizune. Shizune was pushing right through the middle of the wounded, along with Sakura, checking on them and counting each ones chances' of survival. Medical supplies were almost exhausted and now they could only afford to treat those shinobi that, once healed, could be sent back into the fight. The rest had to wait.

They stopped above a shinobi whose flak jacket was torn in several spots and the blood coming from his shallow wounds was almost dry. The man was maybe in his thirties, if not last twenties, and was brought here by an ANBU member who had been almost in tears begging them to help his friend.

Right now he was unconscious with steady breathing.

"Doesn't look so bad," stated Shizune while checking his temperature, "Sakura, could you deal with him?"

The girl also kneeled beside the wounded man, nodding her head.

"Good. I've got to report and it can take a while," she said looking at her watch and getting up from her knees. After a moment she was again pushing through the field of injured people, stumbling and cursing.

Sakura sat more comfortably before the injured man and immediately got to work. She took off his uniform, broke open his shirt and turned him aside to first check the wounds on his back. In the camp there was shortage of blankets so lots of the injured simply lay on the ground, constantly changing the dirt under their bodies into bloody mud. In this case it was the same. When Sakura looked at his bare back she noted that from some quite harmless-looking cuts running from top to bottom over the entire surface of the man's back, there was white pus spilling out.

While holding the man up so he didn't fall over, she used her left hand to pull from her pocket a wet towel and quickly washed off the mud and blood. Then she found small bottle of spiritus in the middle pocket of her flak jacket, soaked the towel with it and started to clean his wounds. Each time she felt his body quiver when her hand passed over another wound but it was necessary. This way she could heal him without worrying about infection as all of his injuries would be clean. She then placed her hand above his back and allowed her chakra to repair the damaged tissues.

The wounds weren't that serious and after a short while his back was covered in little, meaningless scratches.

When she turned him onto his back and started healing the wounds on his stomach, she heard loud screams above her. She raised her head just in time to see a group of Naruto clones, which leaped above the wounded and headed towards the forest.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out at them.

One of the clones stopped, looked at her and waved the others on then separated from them and quickly rushed to Sakura. The rest of the clones soon disappeared into the forest.

Once the clone was next to her he kneeled down, looking at her.

"Sakura? Has something happened?" he asked.

"Where are you now?" She asked, freeing one hand from her healing technique and placing it on forehead of the man who was now hardly breathing.

"When we separated we looked for a masked man," replied Clone-Naruto, taking out a hot poultice from the pan filled with water, which Sakura had pointed at, "Those white soldiers of his won't be a problem anymore."

He put the compress on the man's forehead and looked at Sakura. She then finally looked up at him too.

"And what about..." she didn't finish, but it was obvious what she meant.

"He's with Itachi. They're in a fight with Kabuto."

"Itachi?" she repeated surprised, "And... Kabuto?... What does he have to do with all of this?"

"Edo Tensei," Clone-Naruto said only, hearing Sakura sigh harshly, "It looks like Kabuto is now stronger than his old master. Do you have any news from Tsunade-baachan?"

"No. I guess she's still with the other Kages fighting Madara," she said, lowering her head again. "You think that... that she..."

"Everything's gonna be alright, hey," he put hand on her shoulder, and she looked back at him. "I promise you, that everything is gonna be fine," he repeated.

Something in his eyes told her that he was right. Some colour returned to her face and his hand on her arm added courage.

They didn't even notice when the wounded shinobi opened his eyes and his breathing returned to normal. He did not speak at once though, instead looking with amusement at his allies.

"Do you think that... we... I mean..." started Sakura, when his hand was back resting on his leg, "After all of this that we've been through..."

She then went silent shaking her head.

"Sakura?..." the clone looked at her intently.

"N-no... it's nothing," she replied quickly, smiling softly.

Around them medics were running, giving or receiving orders and somewhere in the distance there could be heard continuous explosions – rays of light were telling them that war was yet not over.

But right now they only had time for themselves.

"So... what were you looking for here?" she asked, gesturing with a nod of her head where she had seen him and the other clones earlier.

"We're disarming traps," replied the clone.

"The war hasn't yet ended, and yet all you can think of now is about removing its gears?" laughed Sakura.

"Helping with your work," the clone also smiled, but it could be seen that it was not 'that' smile, which appeared only on the face of the real Naruto, "and sometimes I have nice moments."

"Meaning?"

"Like, right now."

Sakura looked at her knees, trying to cover her embarrassment and then she noticed that the wounded shinobi was smiling at her.

"Oh, you're awake," said Sakura, her face going red when he gave her a wink, "H... how are you feeling mister?"

"Like fresh fish, although I wouldn't mind some sake," replied the shinobi in a low voice, coughing a laugh.

Sakura finished her technique with a sigh and the green coating around her hands disappeared with a quiet 'pop'. With Clone-Naruto she helped the man back onto his feet.

The compress landed back in the pot again and Sakura gave the shinobi some pills, watching him carefully as he swallowed them.

"If you feel up to it, at the edge of the camp you'll find general Tataki," said Sakura, checking his temperature, "He'll let you know what to do."

The smile disappeared from the shinobi's face, but he bowed and thanked her for healing him, and then he walked away in direction she indicated.

"I can see that being in control suits you," the clone-Naruto praised her as she issued a command to some other healer while they were walking through the meadow of wounded.

"Come on, you haven't seen Shizune-san?" Sakura replied, leaning over the next shinobi, who this time was conscious, "How do you feel?" she asked, quickly scanning his body with her eyes.

"My arms and legs are in the right place?" he asked feebly but with a smile.

"Looks like it," said clone-Naruto, also kneeling beside the man.

"Then I feel perfect," the shinobi showed his teeth in a big smile, and pointed at his stomach. "But something strange is happening in here."

"What do you mean?" Sakura took his jacket off and tore open his shirt. Instead of a navel the man had a few glowing dots running up his stomach which pulsed blue light.

"One of those white bastards hit me with some technique," he explained, shuddering at the mere mention of it.

"I see... I'll see what I can do," Sakura sat before him and took a small scroll out of one of her pockets.

She unwrapped it, took out a small needle and gently stabbed it into one of the pulsing dots on the man's abdomen.

"Ow." He muttered, gritting his teeth.

Sakura ignored him, and in the middle of the seal characters on the scroll, she placed a drop of his blood.

The marks shone faintly and changed color from black to yellow.

"Well, I'll send someone over here soon," she said, giving him the re-wrapped scroll, "Give it to that person. Please don't worry, it's nothing serious."

"Really?" inquired man with no conviction, but he took the scroll and looked at it as if it were treasure.

Sakura got up from her knees again, and with Clone-Naruto, began to wade through the injured again.

"You're silent," she stated after a while, looking at him.

"You know, I don't want to…"

Suddenly he broke off, stopped and looked back. Sakura also glanced in that direction.

Above the woods around the clearing the horizon began to glow, resembling the rising sun, but it was brighter and was accompanied by a thundering sound louder than those that appeared with storms.

She noticed that a flock of crows flew over them, crying as they fled. Then another flock flew by, and then another one, and eventually the whole sky was covered in black fluttering wings, along with the loud voices of a thousand birds.

"Dammit a..." said the clone before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Sakura stared for a moment at the deliquescent clouds in the air, and fearfully concluded that the same thing had happened to the others that were in the area.

A pair of Naruto clones, who carried a seriously injured kunoichi a few feet away from her, also disappeared, and the wounded fell heavily to the ground with a scream. Sakura quickly ran to her but thankfully she was fine. Sakura again looked to the horizon.

Great blazes of fire were now rising up in the atmosphere and a sudden gust of wind blew the treetops all around.

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A week later, as she broke through the crowds still cheering and lifting beer mugs on makeshift streets of Konoha, Sakura had a mess in her head.

The war was over and people seemed to have even more energy than ever, taking part in the endless parties. However she thought only about being able to eventually sleep properly. It didn't mean that she wasn't happy about the end of the war, quite the opposite - she also wanted to jump in between all these people and shinobi, grab someone up and hug them, but she was a medic, and the medics had other tasks to complete.

At the minute she was walking to a temporary hospital, located at the back of the village. After the war every village had taken in all the wounded from on their borders no matter which village they were from. The only exceptions were the Kage, who were being transported to their own villages. Tsunade finally returned to Konoha that day, although the word 'return' was not totally appropriate, given that she was unconscious the entire trip.

When Sakura finally broke through into the more peaceful road leading straight to the hospital, Shikamaru landed next to her.

"Hey," she said, seeing the man pull out a packet of smokes.

They had become an addiction for him since the end of the war. With a cigarette in his mouth, he resembled Asuma – his old sensei who had been killed last year by one of the Akatsuki.

"Hey Sakura, you look awful," he said pulling out a lighter.

"Thanks, you too," she replied watching the man light up, "Really?"

"What?" Shikamaru asked, confused.

"Nothing," Sakura shook her head in disapproval, "So, you also got called?"

"No," he replied, his face taking on its usual grimace, "I've to report."

"Do you have any info about…?"

Shikamaru interrupted her with a wave of his hand.

"Before you ask again, think whether you really want to know," he said it sharply, but his expression changed, he seemed more downcast.

"What does that even mean?" she asked as sharply, "Of course I want to know!"

Shikamaru sighed, taking a deep drag on his cigarette before replying.

"Naruto is alive," he said finally.

"And why would that be bad news?" she asked, feeling waves of relief spread through her body.

"He's badly injured," Shikamaru replied.

The look on his face gave a good indication that 'seriously injured' meant something really serious.

Shikamaru had returned from the Sand Village two days before, and since then had said nothing about Naruto.

To Sakura that could mean everything, and could mean nothing.

They passed by the destroyed headquarters, and appeared in front of a small field hospital, the roofs of which were made of canvas. Screams and curses could be heard from inside.

"Tsunade woke up," he said with a grin. Before entering the tent, he threw his cigarette into the trash, and followed behind Sakura into the hospital.

"Finally!" yelled Tsunade at the sight of them, "How long was I supposed to wait for the two of you?"

She was lying on a wooden bed, wrapped in plaster from head to foot. Although the plaster restricted her movements, she somehow seemed more dangerous.

"Master!" Sakura walked up to her to have a look at her injuries. "Feeling any better?"

"Yeah... like a mummy," she growled, still looking at Shikamaru who didn't dare come any closer. He stood in the doorway, hands in his pockets, "Well, tell me."

Shikamaru cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"It will be possible to move him tomorrow," he looked at Sakura, who immediately understood who they were talking about, "Gaara says he will try to come to Konoha as soon as possible."

Tsunade sighed heavily and fell on the pillow, "He's still unconscious?"

"He woke up for a moment to tell them that... Sasuke is dead." When he said that, Sakura felt even more relief passing through her body, 'It's the end' she thought, 'It's over.' "I still can't believe that he survived it all."

"That's not weird at all," said Tsunade with smile, "Where's Kakashi?"

"I saw him at..."

"Here," a voice interrupted from behind him, where the tent sheets had been opened.

Kakashi walked inside with Guy. Kakashi's left hand was still in a plaster cast and a sling, and Guy's head was wrapped in few bandages.

"Good," said Tsunade, watching as Kakashi sat on one of chairs next to her bed, "Speak. I want to have a clear view on what happened there, first hand."

"Maybe it will better if..." He looked to Sakura, who immediately understood what he was trying to say.

"Not a chance," she said sharply, "I have the same right to hear it as anyone!"

"Sakura..."

"No!" she repeated.

Kakashi sighed heavily and gave up.

"Alright, then..."

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"I've seen two World Wars in my life. I watched as my father was worn down by his actions, I saw my best friend die right in front of me, I saw my master dying, and also I watched as the people around me, people who were important to me, leave.

Even my own students.

But something like that… I never expected something like that from Naruto.

I always thought that the thing inside of him hides great power. Great power, great energy and a good heart of course.

I knew everything about him when I took you three on. I knew also everything about you Sakura, and Sasuke.

But how was I supposed to know that it would end like that?

When I wasn't looking, Naruto surpassed everyone – Jiraiya, his father and maybe even the First.

Sasuke too. The two of them – two such powerful shinobi, one in front of me looking just like his father… just for a second, I thought it was him.

I didn't know where Sasuke was, Naruto told me that he was fighting with Kabuto.

I didn't know why but I was glad to hear that.

'Maybe not everything is lost yet.' I thought.

When Madara… or should I say the man who was pretending to be Madara... summoned those five remaining Bijuu...

All hell broke loose.

I knew that Guy and I shouldn't be there. It wasn't a normal fight. It couldn't even be ranked as an S-ranked fight, as it was more than anything I've ever seen. I could feel that something bad was going to happen. Something that we wouldn't be able to repair and it would happen if Naruto couldn't stop it.

Along with Bee who had already turned into the Eight-tails, I thought that we stood a chance.

But when Bee was defeated my hope was shattered.

But then, Naruto should also have changed into demon. But he didn't!

He controlled him… he was sitting on his head, on head of Kyuubi, but that's not what he called him.

"Kurama," I could clearly hear Naruto call to beast, "I don't want them to suffer anymore. Enough already."

It seemed that in the end, he finally managed to tame the demon... no... He befriended him.

What changed that the beast, who once wanted to destroy our village, was now on our side?

Then I heard the reason for that change.

"You'll pay for what you've done!" roared the demon, "For what you did to me sixteen years ago!"

I then realized that it was him – Tobi, Fake-Madara – who was behind all of this. Not Akatsuki, nor Orochimaru. It was him.

He didn't speak, just pointed at Naruto.

I grabbed Bee and we retreated with Guy.

I only saw five big chakra bombs hit Naruto and Kyuubi.

But that attack failed, the bombs rebounded from them as if they had hit some kind of invisible shield, and after that the battle changed.

Kyuubi started to shoot the same bombs from his tails at Tobi, and Naruto just threw himself onto remaining tailed beasts. On each of them he sent a group of clones, who then entered their mouths and ears.

"I'll free you!" Naruto cried out to them, "Just wait a little more!"

I didn't know how he was going to do it. He just sent in clones, and when they came out, he began to meditate so that it burned on his body like the flames. Each time when he was finished, he spoke to them using their names.

"NARUTO!" I heard the demon that looked like a gorilla speak to him, and then grasp him with his giant paw. For a second I thought it was all over, that he was dead, but beast just brought him up to his eyes and said: "Thank you."

"Not a problem, Songo!" replied Naruto, giving him thumbs up.

Then the demon attacked him, but Naruto just jumped out of his hand, formed seals and immobilized each of the Bijuu with giant gold chains.

It looked just like... I don't know. I don't know those techniques, and I don't know how and where Naruto could have learned them.

When last of the beasts was immobilized, all of them roared and waved their tails, but not at Naruto.

They were howling at Fake-Madara.

"It's over!" They yelled.

"Go, Naruto!"

"Kill him!"

"End this!"

"Now."

All seemed to cheer Naruto on. Suddenly, from being enemies they had become allies.

They had been powerful enemies when they were under the influence of the masked man.

Tobi was the underdog now. He knew that. We knew he knew, because soon after the last beast spoke, he used his teleportation technique, but before he could get away, Naruto grabbed him and disappeared with him.

Then, from the earth emerged a big statue with nine eyes and one big one overhead. Seven of them were open and the large one was ajar.

"Destroy it!" growled the beasts.

"Destroy!"

Then Bee regained consciousness and he changed back into the Hachibi again and did what the beasts asked of him. When the great statue was crushed, out from center flew energy streams that soared towards the beasts and when it touched them they started to change back into humans.

I couldn't believe it. We were told that all of the Jinchuuriki had died and that their bodies were buried, and yet there they were, safe and breathing. I now know that Gaara regained his stolen Shukaku chakra as well and could change into the beast again.

But that wasn't the end. Naruto, along with the masked man, had disappeared somewhere. But where?

When we were searching the area the skies above us suddenly exploded.

It was… I don't even know how to describe it properly.

You all saw it. From a distance perhaps it looked as if the Sun had exploded, but under it… We saw the creation of a great fire tornado, high above us, and there was another flash of light inside. Moments later there was one more explosion, and the tornado turned into a sphere of fire, which was spinning upwards faster and faster.

I thought it would never end. Every second stretched into minutes and then hours, I felt like I was under the influence of a genjutsu. We lay on the ground trying to protect our and Jinchuuriki bodies. Then yet another explosion came, the fire sphere expanded even more and exploded sending waves of heat all over. Suddenly the sphere opened again and then closed and from middle of it flew a great flaming funnel which fell to the ground. The heat was overwhelming. When I thought that it would melt us, suddenly this cone opened… no, it was torn. I couldn't believe it… or could I? Inside of the slowly disappearing fire tunnel, there was Naruto and the masked man.

The thing was he no longer had his mask on. I had never seen this person in my life, but he had the Sharingan and... the Rinnegan. But it didn't look like the eyes of his enemy were bothering him at all. He was in sage mode with closed eyes, throwing Rasen-Shurikens at him over and over again. Hundreds of his clones were appearing as if from thin air, as Naruto didn't seem to even make seals, but the clones were easy enemies for Tobi. The struggle lasted a long time. The enemy's techniques were not from this world. I barely followed the course of the fight, seeing only smudges, streaks of brightness, reflecting off each other with loud bangs. The air was filled with large amounts of heavy chakra. Suddenly Naruto changed back into Kyuubi, grabbed the masked man and threw him high into skies. He then shot a few of those chakra bombs which then surrounded Fake-Madara and exploded.

The giant fire sphere in the sky just disappeared and Tobi flew to the ground. Naruto jumped on him again covered in flames.

"Oodama Rasengan!" The huge Rasengan in his hand finished the battle.

Fake-Madara was dead.

Just like that.

His head was the only thing left of his body.

But Naruto wasn't going to cheer.

When he got up he looked to the east, then gave us a thumbs up and flew away!"

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Kakashi finished the story, trying to steady his shaking hands. Guy, standing next to him, paled slightly but continued to smile.

"He ran straight to us," said Tsunade suddenly, from her bed.

Everyone looked at her.

"Madara, the real one, had sent his wooden clones to us using the First's techniques. I thought we were done for, but then suddenly Naruto shows up in that flaming body of his. He just grabbed Madara and sealed him along with himself," her voice faltered as she recalled it. "Madara's clones just disappeared, and I knew that the kid did it."

Everyone looked down at their shoes.

"But he came out of it right?" Sakura grabbed her master's hand.

"Yes," replied Tsunade, "After some two hours, when we thought that…" She shook her head quickly, "The pyramid-like seal cracked and Naruto came out of it saying 'Madara disappeared'."

Sakura looked at the others and then back to Tsunade.

"What happened then?"

"Then?" she repeated with laugh," Then, Naruto said that he had one more thing to do, and just disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"I think that he was just too fast or it was my imagination, I was seriously injured at the time." She pondered.

"No one knew where he was or what he did when he went there," said Kakashi after a while, "All we know is that we found him three days later in the desert near Sand Village."

"He probably tried to get there on his own, the moron," Tsunade snorted.

"Master!" Sakura gave her a reproachful look.

"Alright... did he say anything then?" She asked, waving her hand to dismiss Sakura's glare.

"He was unconscious then."

A silence fell. Everyone thought about how helpless and powerless they had been during the war.

"Shikamaru," Kakashi said.

"Hmm?"

"Have you seen what Naruto looks like now?" he asked, turning to him.

Shikamaru stepped closer to Tsunade's bed, standing next to Sakura.

"His hand's been reattached if that's what you're asking," he replied with bored tone.

Sakura gazed at him, discreetly wiping her tears.

"What do you mean... that his hand has been reattached?" she repeated.

"Oh." Kakashi looked at her and then to Tsunade, who had a similar expression on her face.

"When we found him, Naruto didn't have his right hand. Well... he did, but he was holding it in his left."

Sakura released a muffled exclamation, covering her mouth with her hand, but Shikamaru placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Relax. I told you that it's back in its place," he said.

Sakura looked at him and shrugged the hand off her shoulder.

"Where is he now," she asked weakly.

"In Sand but… wait!" He managed to call out before Sakura rushed out of the tent.

"Leave her," ordered Tsunade when Kakashi was about to get up and follow her.

"What?" he looked at her surprised, "But she'll…"

"…run to Sand, I know," Tsunade said, a smile spreading on her face to the shock of the men.

"But he'll be back tomorrow…"

"Oh, men," scoffed Tsunade, "They'll don't understand a thing."

Kakashi looked to Shikamaru, who shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the tent. From the outside the sound of a lighter sparking up could be heard.


Creds:

Again thanks very much Odmonkey for help!

Disclaimer: "Naruto" and all respective characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Shueisha Inc.!