Naruto and Sasuke eyed Nagato warily. Nagato's Rinnegan was flashing dangerously, and Sasuke gulped as he activated his Sharingan. "Can you at least talk us out of this one?" he whispered to Naruto. Naruto was sweating bullets.

"I don't think he'll listen," he muttered back. Sasuke swore.

"He's an Edo summon," he said. "Impure World Resurrection." Sasuke studied Nagato's features. His face was blank, impassive. "And it looks like his soul was sealed too. Basically, he's just a mindless soldier to Madara now."

"Wonderful," Naruto said dryly. "Let's try not to die, shall we?"

"Don't use the Kyuubi unless you absolutely have to," Sasuke warned.

"Yeah, you don't use the Mangekyou Sharingan unless you really need to either," Naruto shot back. Sasuke nodded as he sent a Chidori Nagashi shooting towards Nagato. Nagato dodged it cleanly, along with six others Sasuke shot. He even jumped out of the way of five or six of Naruto's Kage Bunshins trying to tackle him. After several Chidoris, hundreds of Kage Bunshins, and a few Rasengans, Sasuke and Naruto finally managed to land a hit on Nagato. Of course by now, both Sasuke and Naruto's chakra levels had dropped significantly. "What are we going to do?" Naruto yelled. "We just barely hit him!" Sasuke froze as he remembered his fight with Danzo. He remembered how Danzo just somehow managed to warp reality with all those Sharingans on his arm. Could he use that jutsu as well? There was only one way to find out.

Sasuke powered up his Mangekyou Sharingan and glared at Nagato, who was standing at a comfortable distance from him. He shut his eyes.

"Izanagi."

Sakura flipped open the red commonplace book Tsunade had given to her on her fourteenth birthday and pulled out a pen. She activated her Rinnegan and stared at the wall ahead of her. What was once a jumbled mess of kanji was now a neat and orderly script. Sakura smirked. "Perfect," she whispered to herself. The top line was neat and clear: "The Code of the Sage of the Six Paths". Sakura frowned. Madara just wanted a history lesson? The kanji covered the entire wall, and, as Sakura kept reading, she found each point more and more surprising.

Hiroshi and Akihiro, if you are reading this, you are too late, for I am already dead. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Who were Hiroshi and Akihiro? I could never be more proud of you, my two sons. Sakura only grew more confused. Why was the Sage of the Six Paths, whoever he was, writing a message to his two sons in kanji that they probably couldn't even read? Sakura stared at the translation of the writing on the wall in her commonplace book. I am glad that you two have finally gotten past your differences, as that is the only way you can read this now. Hiroshi, Akihiro, remember this: you two are incredibly strong alone, but if you combine forces, you can obtain the power required to change this very earth. There was a blank space, and then, several inches lower: Only Senju and Uchiha together can bring about world peace. Sakura couldn't help smiling. That meant that Naruto and Sasuke would have to work together to save the world. The script seemed to end there, but farther down, near the floor, was an entirely different script. This one was much harder for Sakura to decipher.

Yuna, it read. I have entrusted the Rinnegan to you. Cherish it. Pass it down to your descendants, but do not just give it to those strong only in body; give it to those strong in mind as well. But pass it down only if Hiroshi and Akihiro do not reconcile. Suddenly, the kanji on the wall dissolved into one unintelligible blur. Sakura jumped back as the kanji reformed itself into something entirely different. If you are reading this on the strength of the Rinnegan alone, I can only assume that my daughter Yuna has failed in reconciling Hiroshi and Akihiro. The kanji shifted again. Senju and Uchiha must be joined together to achieve world peace. If they do not reconcile within one thousand years time, the world will end. The world cannot be saved by the strength of the Rinnegan alone. Your task is to reconcile Uchiha and Senju. The kanji shifted one final time. The fate of the world lies in your hands.

Sasuke stared Nagato down. "Sasuke, what the hell are you doing?" Naruto shouted. Sasuke just focused on Nagato and tried to recreate Danzo's jutsu. It took Danzo about a dozen Sharingans embedded into his arm to perform the jutsu. Could Sasuke really do it with just two? He shut his eyes and tried to picture an alternate reality. One where Nagato was never an Edo summon… one where Nagato never died. He imagined a happy, smiling Nagato with bright red hair (something Naruto said he had) and green eyes like Sakura's, free of the Rinnegan. He reopened his eyes and stared at Nagato, willing the frail, ghostly man to return to the incredibly strong man who led Akatsuki for so many years. He tried to focus on this image, but another crossed his mind and wouldn't leave. It was one of Sakura. She appeared like she had in Team Seven's photo, smiling in glee, but instead of Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi with her, it was Nagato, also smiling warmly as well.

Then it felt as if Sasuke's right eye was being slashed open with a kunai laced with salt. Sasuke cried out in pain as he clutched his eye with one hand. He forced his free eye open and swore he could see color returning to Nagato's hair, although his Rinnegan didn't disappear. Sasuke shut his eye again. Sakura should be happy. Nagato had to live! His left eye burst with pain as well. Sasuke cried out in pain again. Sasuke felt his chakra rapidly depleting, and he collapsed onto his knees. He could hear Naruto shouting his name, but he couldn't see anything. He almost didn't want to see anything. It wasn't long before he couldn't hear anything either. Everything was just black.

Sakura rushed through the streets of Konoha, not really sure where she was going, not really sure if she had a destination to begin with. Why did Madara want to find out what was written on the wall of that Uchiha cavern so badly? Did he think the wall said how to control the world? Well it didn't, so what was Sakura supposed to do? Reconcile Uchiha and Senju? That was just Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura shuddered as she remembered what Naruto had said: if he and Sasuke fought, they would both die.

Yuna… she was the Sage's daughter, and her duty was to reconcile her two brothers Akihiro and Hiroshi. Sakura knew that Hiroshi's descendants were the Uchiha and Akihiro's were the Senju… but who were Yuna's descendants? Sakura knew for a fact that she was one of them – why else would she have the Rinnegan? But what was the damn family name? Sakura knew that Senju branched into the Sarutobis and that the Uchihas were just… Uchiha… but what were Yuna's descendants?

Sakura was snapped out of her thoughts when she walked right into someone. "Sorry," Sakura mumbled automatically.

"Sakura?" Sakura looked up. It was Tsunade.

"Oh!" Sakura gasped as she snapped into attention. "Tsunade-sama! You're back!" Tsunade smiled.

"Yup," she replied. She frowned slightly. "Are you ok? You look kind of distracted." Sakura forced herself to look away from Tsunade.

"Um…"

"Is it because of the Rinnegan?" she asked. Sakura's eyes snapped up. Did word about it spread that quickly? How many people knew? But still…

"No," Sakura replied. "It's more to do with my… real family." Tsunade smiled sympathetically.

"I know," she said. "Kakashi told me you were adopted."

"Tsunade-sama…" Sakura said quietly. "Do you know anything about the Sage of the Six Paths?" Tsunade frowned.

"A little," she replied. "Why?"

"Because…" Sakura said slowly. "Karin said that Madara wanted the Rinnegan so that he could read the writing on a wall in this Uchiha cavern, so I went there myself and tried to read it… Well… I could read it, but I don't really understand what it means."

"What did it say?" Tsunade asked. Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but Tsunade cut her off. "Wait. Let's not blab this to the whole village. Let's go to my office. We'll finish this discussion there."

Recap:

Sasuke and Naruto fight Nagato, but to no avail. Since Nagato is an Edo summon and he has the Rinnegan, he is too powerful for them to defeat. So Sasuke resorts to a jutsu he saw Danzo perform: Izanagi. He tries to warp reality so that Nagato lives and is not an Edo summon, but the results of Izanagi are still unknown. Meanwhile, Sakura tries to decipher the writing on the wall of the Naka Shrine with her Rinnegan. She learns that the Sage of the Six Paths, who lived over a thousand years ago, had three children: Hiroshi, Akihiro, and Yuna. Hiroshi's descendants are the Uchiha and Akihiro's descendants are the Senju. Hiroshi and Akihiro are enemies, and it is Yuna's task to bring them back together to save the world, as world peace can only be achieved if the Uchiha and the Senju work together. The Sage of the Six Paths gifted Yuna with the Rinnegan and instructed her to pass it down to the strongest of her descendants, both physically and mentally. Sakura acknowledges that she is one of Yuna's descendants, but she doesn't know what other families or clans could be Yuna's descendants.

So… yeah, I know it's a way shorter chapter than usual, but please bear with me! Also, have any of you noticed that you know just about as much about Sakura's past as you do about Tenten's? That's saying a lot. As for the whole Hiroshi-Akihiro-Yuna thing… I kind of made that up.

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