Sakura had been in battle before- but never like this.

Her fight to the death with Sasori had pushed her to her very limits, she remembered, it had seemed like the entire world had hung on that endless, bloody encounter. But it had been her fight. No one had ever trusted her to be capable of fighting her own battles before and yet there she was, after two and a half years- and she was equal to it.

But that had been a battle with three players- this on the other hand, well…this was a war.

The noise was deafening. Her ears were full of the sound of clashing metal- kunai on kunai, katana on shuriken- splattering blood and the frenzied shouts and screams of her comrades as they fought against Madara's army. But that was all she knew of them; she had her own opponents to deal with.

Left! She thought, just managing to avoid being sliced in half by her opponent, one of the seven swordsmen from the Mist. Tall, thin and deadly, she had witnessed him slice through ten of her comrades with his longsword and then stitch them all together disjointedly before she joined the fray about half an hour ago. He moved blindingly fast- the sword came out of nowhere in a powerful swipe that was aimed to separate her legs from her body- and Sakura jumped, twisting in midair as she brought her katana down on his outstretched arm.

He parried the blow though, with a force that would have paralysed all the muscles in her arm if she didn't have her superhuman strength. The fight was starting to take its toll on her body; she just didn't have the stamina that Naruto had, not yet and she was already bleeding from a vicious gash to her shoulder.

I can't see in this mist, she thought weighing up her situation, and neither can anyone else. It's just a matter of time before they pick us all off, one by one. We're at a major disadvantage.

The Nara team had their shadow jutsu to incapacitate the swordsmen and Kakashi had the sharingan to predict their every move- but what did she have that would keep her alive? She had to do something to end this fight and quickly.

Using the momentum of his block against him, Sakura skidded back in the dirt and brought her free fist down on the ground, shattering it instantly. Earth exploded upwards, temporarily hiding her from view while her opponent was knocked off his feet by the force of her punch.

Water is no good, she realised, and poison won't kill them. I can't incapacitate him with a sword, but-

She rapidly went through the hand signs for a clone jutsu and immediately two of herself appeared by her side in a puff of smoke. She couldn't form an army of clones like Naruto, but that didn't mean she was useless at it.

"Distraction," she ordered the clone on her left, who sprang forward into the mist with a look of grim determination and a fierce battle cry. She turned to her second clone, who grinned back at her. "Way ahead of you."

Sakura concealed herself in the broken ground as Kakashi had often done when sparring her and Naruto, while the second clone slipped into the midst silently. As her first clone fought her opponent with the katana, the second waited patiently for an opening. For anyone else it would have been a challenge, simultaneously using and suppressing their chakra levels while maintaining a clone jutsu- but Sakura had control that bested anyone else's in the Five Shinobi Nations, apart from maybe Tsunade herself. And she had learned to be clever with it.

Her fingers twitched, threading chakra up through the cracks in the ground with delicate precision until she found her target. Her clone was doing an admirable job, lunging and parrying to the left and right, moving with a speed that Sakura would never have believed herself capable of two weeks ago and her opponent- Kuriarare, she thought she'd heard Kakashi call him before the battle truly started- matched her blow for blow.

"Just a little more…" she murmured, her focus split in three different directions. It was just a matter of timing-

Kuriarare changed the direction of his strike very suddenly and the clone didn't quite manage to block it in time. As it tore through her neck, the second clone surged into movement, chakra scalpels blazing in both hands; he turned to decapitate her as she sliced through his arms, severing the muscles almost instantly.

"Now!" The clone shouted, both clones vanishing in a puff of smoke and Sakura tightened the chakra strings looped around Kuriarare's feet with a clench of her fist. He fell to the ground, arms hanging uselessly by his side with a snarl from behind the mask.

She summoned her chakra as she exploded upwards from the ground, keeping her hands in the seals she'd practised with Kakashi for days-

The earth came alive with a vengeance; snakelike tendrils as thick as three trunks shot up and latched onto the swordsman by his incapacitated limbs, wrapping around and around until he was as tightly bound as a caterpillar in a cocoon.

"I think I'll have your sword," she said, as the earth dragged him irresistibly into the ground and pulled him down, down down…

The ground closed up behind him without a blemish, not so much as an indication to show where it had swallowed her opponent whole and Sakura ended the jutsu, feeling the beginnings of the strain in her system. That had cost her more chakra than she would have liked, her arms were already tiring with her use of the katana and she hadn't yet had the chance to heal herself.

"That was tough," she muttered, seizing up the dropped longsword and darting away from the spot, intending to regroup with Kakashi immediately. She'd last seen him battling Zabuzza and Haku, but that had been awhile ago- and she wasn't sure where that particular show down had moved to while she'd been preoccupied.

She flitted through the mist, dodging shuriken and stray kunais, relying more on her hearing then her sight to keep her out of their trajectory and checking the limp bodies lying in her bath for survivors.

"Haruno-sama…" a bloodied shinobi gasped as she approached and she made a beeline for him, hands already outstretched to examine his brutal injuries.

"It's alright," she told him calmly, following the internal damage with her chakra; already she had slipped from kunoichi to her medic-persona. "Don't say anything. You need to save your energy."

Just a brief look told her the man had a ruptured spleen, six broken ribs and multiple stab wounds, but she could tell he had many more less immediately life threatening injuries that would quickly take their toll unless she healed him in the most methodical way possible. Hands glowing with healing chakra, she tried to fix the most life threatening wounds first and stop the bleeding, but his stomach had been pierced and was leaking acid into his internal organs all the time. One of his lungs had deflated where a rib had gone through it and both were filling up with blood-

I can fix him, she told herself, attempting to repair his stomach lining and close up the gaping wound in his neck at the same time. It's not too late, I can do it. I can save this mans life.

His breathing worried her immensely; it was shallow and rattled in his chest when he wasn't coughing up blood-

"SAKURA!" A voice yelled from somewhere to the right and broke her concentration. Her chakra faltered as something lunged at her from out of the mist.

The bandages fell to the floor with the quietest of fluttering sounds, a soft whisper of gauze whooshing through the air. For a moment the light flared through his closed eyelids, turning his vision a sudden deep red. And then he opened his eyes.

The clarity that met him made Sasuke realise just how bad his eyesight had gotten in the last few- well, year actually. Insignificant little details of his surroundings jumped out at him- the uneven texture of the walls, the tiny cracks in the floors, the warped shape of the wooden door….

All these he would have missed a few weeks ago. It had been so long since he had seen the world this clearly.

"Wha-"

The uncharacteristic surprise in Zetsu's voice made him smirk. Sasuke unleashed the full force of his sharingan with the same wild high he had felt staring down at Danzou's corpse.

Though he had entered the world of the mangkyo several times, he had never been at liberty to control it. Itachi had always had the power here, always, just as he had held the power over Sasuke's head in ever other aspect of his life. But Sasuke owned that particular power now.

He focused on Zetsu's lithe form, catching his eye and drawing him into the illusionary world before the freak knew what had happened. Madara's lapdog went completely still, his strange eyes glazing over and Sasuke took a moment to enjoy it, before stabbing him through the chest with a chidori.

The familiar crackle of lightning was oddly reassuring to his ears. But it had always been that way. He had always felt better after deciding on a course of action; after the massacre all those years ago- and here his mind flinched inwardly away from the ever vivid memories of all that blood- Sasuke had succeeded in dragging himself up and out of that catatonic grief only by deciding upon revenge. Despite all outward appearances he had never been a patient person, not really. There was always a ticking clock measuring up his progress- no matter how far he came, Itachi had always been miles and miles ahead…..

Zetsu's limp white body smacked into the ground, a huge hole smoking in his chest, eyes staring sightlessly upwards. It had all happened so fast that Sasuke doubted he had even realised what had happened.

He suddenly wondered if Sakura would have looked like that if he had succeeded in killing her. The memory of her wide green eyes floated to the surface of his mind, full of a vivid betrayal.

It doesn't matter, he thought determinedly, pushing the thought away.

After all it was she and the rest of Konoha who had betrayed him, was it not? She had never meant anything to him; none of them had ever meant anything to him. If Naruto had not come along she would be dead, Kakashi too.

Right?

"You," Sasuke turned, his hand still crackling with the remains of his chidori and the man on the floor attempted to shift away from him, a course of action made more difficult by the binds holding him. His eyes were wide with something like fear. Sasuke felt a sick smile creep across his face. How stupid did Madara and Kabuto think he was anyway? Just because he couldn't see until a few minutes ago, didn't mean he was deaf. He knew who this man was.

His sharingan was blazing as he advanced on the bound man. "Look at me."

Slowly, as though compelled against his will by the intensity in Sasuke's voice, Yamato looked up at him with something akin to repulsion in his eyes.

"Now," Sasuke said, activating the mangekyo with another thrill of excitement. "Tell me- where is Naruto Uzumaki?"

She was sent flying backwards into the ground, a pair of clammy hands closing around her throat. The impact jarred her spine and knocked the breath out of her, making Sakura slower than usual to fight back against the dead weight pinning her down.

"Get off!" She snarled, kicking out with a chakra enhanced kick- the blow should have sent her new opponent flying but he seemed to liquefy his form into water instead and neutralise the impact. A watery hand pressed over her mouth, rivulets of its streaming down her throat and choking her, despite her struggles. She couldn't breathe; her first few attempts only had her inhaling water and seizing up her lungs. Above her all she could make out was a glimmer of serrated teeth.

"Time to die!" He told her in an almost gleeful voice- and Sakura couldn't believe that she was going to die, here, choking on a watery fist after everything she had been through. She refused.

"Get off her!" A new voice yelled from somewhere nearby and her liquid opponent was suddenly hauled backwards like a puppet that had had its strings pulled. Sakura rolled to her feet, a hand pressed to her lungs as she used chakra to pump the water out of her lungs. It spewed from her lips in an alarming quantity- coughing and retching in equal measure, she looked up to see her rescuer (and how she hated that word).

Kankuro was stood to her right, his outstretched hand aglow with chakra threads that were looped around the swordsman who had attacked her. She watched, still fascinated by the technique, as the enemy shinobi moved in relation to Kankuro's twitching fingers.

"Still think you can take me, kid?" He called, not looking over his shoulder.

"Easily," she quipped, darting back to the injured man's side. But she was too late- those minutes in which she had struggled with the man on top of her had been precious and wasted. He was dead.

"Kankuro!" Sakura yelled, a hot pulsing fury rising through her. Her fists clenched by her sides, eyes narrowed dangerously. She could have saved him! If she hadn't been ambushed, she could have, would have saved him. She swallowed her rage down with difficulty. "Have you seen Kakashi?"

"Only five minutes ago. Don't worry he's got it under control." Kankuro sent her dripping opponent into the fray, attacking his own side with ruthless abandon. "Watch my back will you?"

Sakura unsheathed her katana with a snarling grin, the hiss of metal slicing through the air promising justice to her ears.

"I'd love to," she replied, taking her battle stance and daring any enemy shinobi to charge their way.

Kakashi could wait for a moment, she decided. She wasn't in any hurry.

A/n: Oh that moment of joy when you figure out there is a line button in the edit/preview document thingy! No more stress over trying to divide viewpoints :)

You got me. I have very little common sense; a flaw that is the bane of my existence. It makes driving tests REALLY hard work.

Review?