AN: Spoiler alert for all Anime and all Manga up to Chapter 611. Hasn't been beta'd, so sorry for the mistakes.
Disclaimer: don't own anything Naruto related
Chapter 2: Aftermath
Period: same year as war of Allied Shinobi Forces
Sakura glanced at the tent opening before her. Tomorrow they were scheduled to start moving back home. It wasn't too soon for her. She longed to see her beloved Konohagakure again. Even though coming back home this time would be a new experience. She was actually quite curious to see how the rebuilding had come along since leaving for the war.
It had been three months now since the combined Allied Forces of the Shinobi world had faced off the two Madaras and somehow come out victorious. At first it had been just the last two Jinchuuriki's backed up by Kakashi-sensei and Guy-sensei, then the rest of the surviving army had caught up as back-up. After a drawn-out battle, the five Kages had joined them as well. Actually more like four Kages, as Tsunade-shishou had put everything she had into healing her colleagues. It had been the combined and immediate effort of both Shizune-san and herself on the battlefield that had bought them some time to save their beloved Hokage after the monstrous battle.
The ten tails had been sealed in a temple on a flying turtle of all things. The 'real' Madara was safely sealed away, hopefully forever. After that Tobi had escaped to his other dimension. Kakashi-sensei had attempted to follow alone but Naruto had ridden the Kamui getting into that dimension as well. It still wasn't clear what had happened after they both had disappeared but they had been gone for hours. In the mean time, the army had started regrouping and readying themselves for the next attack.
By the time Naruto and Kakashi-sensei were back, confirming that Tobi wouldn't be a problem anymore, Head Quarters had been recalling everyone to base. It was during that retreat that Kakashi-sensei had succumbed, Naruto catching him and carrying him to her. Sakura had healed him immediately but he hadn't awoken. His extreme overuse of the Sharingan had finally taken its toll and to this day Kakashi-sensei had yet to awaken from his coma.
Tsunade-shishou had also been unconscious, though she'd awoken quite soon, only a few days after that last battle. Sakura had overheard her shishou's conversation with Shizune-san. Apparently her fiancé, Shizune-san's uncle, had been one of the pawns used in the Edo Tensei and he'd come to her during the release of the accursed jutsu making her promise she wouldn't join him for quite some time yet. Sakura had cried silent tears, reveling in the powerful feeling that surged through her by hearing the emotion in her shishou's voice and feeling selfishly guilty in her jealousy of the requited love others seemed to experience.
As the weeks passed, patrols had been dispatched to search for survivors on the various battlefields and signs of the remnants of the enemy forces. Except for little skirmishes with a few lone weakened White Zetsu's wandering about, they had yet to find any trace of Kabuto and Sasuke. As far as the intel they had on the Akatsuki, they were the last members still at large. After three weeks of extensive search, they had found the underground with the source of the White Zetsu's power. And the mystery of Yamato-taichou's whereabouts had finally been solved.
By then Tsunade-shishou had recovered enough to be at full strength. That was mostly the reason Sakura hadn't been allowed to accompany the teams to investigate how to destroy or contain the horror that was the Hashirama's Clone. She was tasked to remain at the medic's tents, taking command in Shizune-san's absence, as she and Tsunade-shishou left to investigate. Sakura felt slightly envious that Naruto had been allowed to tag along anyway.
Though 'allow' wasn't exactly the correct verb. If Naruto had been following his own rules before, he barely recognized anyone's authority now. Which wasn't to say he was arrogant, on the contrary, he was still the same old Naruto, actually more humble than before. Only, he'd gotten to be so strong and respected, that no one felt compelled to oppose his will. As long as Naruto's heart and motives stayed pure, Sakura didn't see a real problem with this. Though she vowed to keep by his side to bring him down a few pegs if, no, when the need should arise.
"And that need arose quite frequently" Sakura thought, chuckling and cracking her knuckles.
She had been allowed to attend the full debrief about the situation though, and had been included in the brainstorming in dealing with the problem at hand. It had been a relief that they had come up with a course of action that at least allowed the possibility of saving Yamato first. Sakura had been quite appalled that the first plan had been to just destroy everything without taking any risks of having a new rise of the White Zetsu army.
In the end, she felt satisfied that she just gained one more patient. Yamato-taichou had a long recovery ahead of him. His body had tried to wake up when finally free of the Clone but they had him on coma-inducing herbs for now. The Clone had sapped nearly all of his chakra and lifeforce, in addition he still sported badly healed torture-wounds. All in all, it was again a miracle that they had a chance to restore him and the medics weren't going to spoil that chance by letting him push himself too soon.
She frowned. While satisfied about Yamato's progress as her patient, her thoughts brought her back to why she was standing before this particular tent. Glaring at the entrance she felt her frustration and impatience with her sensei return tenfold. Kakashi-sensei's unconsciousness was the opposite of Yamato's. His body and chakra reserves had been restored in the days that followed his collapse. Now, more than a month and a half later, he still hadn't bothered to wake up though.
At first she'd doubted herself, having Tsunade-shishou examine him multiple times to make sure they hadn't missed anything. Until her Hokage had lost her patience and explained quite abruptly that medics couldn't cure everything. Sakura knew her shishou hadn't meant to be cruel. She felt as frustrated as Sakura with her inability to do more for the 'Kakashi-brat'. But then again, Sakura never felt more stubborn than when she felt helpless.
And her helplessness had reached an all-time low point just two weeks ago, just to have Naruto give her new incentive to feel hope again.
Ending her rounds checking on the patients under her care in the medic tents, she pushed back the flap of her last stop. She always made it a point to check in on Kakashi-sensei last.
"Sorry, Sensei, I got sidetracked getting a black kitten out of a tree on my way. But hey, I'm here now so let's check how you're doing today" Sakura joked. It was her defense mechanism at seeing her sensei so unresponsive on his cot. She didn't really arrive here late, she just kept him last so she could take her time in searching for anything she might have missed that caused him to keep to his coma.
Barely done with her check-up, Naruto joined her inside, catching her weary sigh. Naruto had become quite adept at being less boisterous when he wanted to, so she hadn't anticipated his presence with his stealthy approach. She made it a point of pride, though, to not jump in surprise.
"How is he?" Naruto asked subdued.
Sakura shrugged dejectedly. Naruto was aware that physically, everything was alright with their Sensei. It didn't need repeating.
"If I didn't know any better, I would think the lazy baka didn't want to wake up" Sakura voiced her frustrations instead.
At that Naruto shifted uneasily, which made her glance at him uncertainly. Narrowing her eyes, she looked at Naruto's guilty expression, trying to figure out what was going on. Fear crept in her voice as she contemplated that her frustrated sentiment might be true.
"Naruto, you know something…" She whispered at first, then louder: "Naruto! You have to tell me! As his medic I need to have all the facts if I want to help him! You baka!"
Naruto winced and averted his eyes, staring at their sensei sadly. Sakura knew that if there was a good reason not to tell her, he wouldn't, but, for the life of her, she couldn't grasp what that reason could be and how it could be a good reason.
After a long pause Naruto sighed and glanced up at her uncertainly. Hesitantly he started:
"I'm not sure. I don't know for sure, Dattabayo. All I know is this. If I hadn't forced my way along when he chased after that Tobi-teme that last time, he would never have made it back. Kakashi-sensei was low on chakra, and wouldn't have had enough to come back if I hadn't gone with him. Kurama…"
At this, Naruto held his stomach, looking sheepish for some reason.
"The Kyuubi saved us by giving Kakashi-sensei some of his chakra again so we could get back to this plane"
Sakura stayed silent, hoping Naruto would tell her more. She wasn't that surprised that Kakashi-sensei had attempted yet again to risk his life to save everyone else. So Naruto had once again been too stubborn to let him go, that didn't explain why he wouldn't wake up now though. Naruto seemed lost in thought and not inclined to continue without more prompting.
"There's more isn't there? What happened in there?"
Sakura more or less knew what had happened in the sense that Tobi had been killed and left to rot in that dimension. But she had a feeling there was more to it.
"Sakura, there's some things I can't…" Naruto looked around him uncertainly. Sakura understood. Even if they were now the Allied Forces, and most shinobi started to hope that this alliance would prove strong and lasting, there was still the matter of being cautious when handling sensitive information. All the while her fear increased that Naruto was trying to tell her that their Sensei didn't want to wake up, didn't want to… live?
Naruto growled in frustration: "This would be so much simpler of you could just bump fists with me as high levels"
Sakura glared at him. She had become aware of this 'trick'. First during the last confrontation with Sasuke and lately when she witnessed Naruto and Killer B 'communicate' in their peculiar way. She had puzzled out how it worked through her observations. She was half tempted to bump his fist anyway to prove a point. But she doubted that it would help her. It would only prove how much lower she was in level than him once he was the one glancing inside of her heart, while she would feel or see nothing out of the ordinary. And she wasn't about to let Naruto glance inside her heart anyway.
"Sakura" Naruto said finally, apparently deciding it was worth the risk "Do you remember that first time at the Memorial Stone? What Sensei told us about one of the names carved there? Probably one of the only things of his private life he's told us? And do you remember us wondering where he got his Sharingan?"
Sakura frowned: since when did Naruto talk in riddles? And what did all that have to do with why their Sensei wouldn't wake up? She opened her mouth, but was cut off immediately by Naruto.
"I don't know all the details either, Sakura. And what I do know, I don't fully understand. You know me, I'm never good at puzzling things out, unless they're explained in detail and preferably repeated a few times"
At this she grunted while Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his head in his goofy way before exclaiming a bit more energeticly.
"You're so much smarter than me, Dattabayo! This Tobi-teme, he wasn't the real Madara, right? Then who was he? I can't tell you, but you'll figure it out anyway, won't you Sakura! Hehe!"
Naruto grinned, but then turned grim again.
"I think Sensei is being a baka. He knows we'll talk sense into him once he wakes up, so he'll have to go on and live with his past again. And he's just trying to draw it out as long as possible"
Naruto frowned, sounding determined: "He's just being late again as usual. He'll wake up soon, believe it!"
Sakura felt relief. Over the course of their strange and cryptic conversation Naruto had come to a conclusion. Whereas at the start he seemed dubious about their Sensei waking up, he'd made up his mind at the end that he was to wake up. It seemed so silly to Sakura's logical mind, but still, having Naruto believing things would work out had always an empowering effect on her.
