Sasuke's chest heaved. Hot puffs of air escaped his mouth as he panted heavily, exhaustion stabbing his chest with insistent need.
The obstinate Uchiha shoulder checked the pain. What right did he have to complain about it, when Sakura was undoubtedly suffering a far worse sensation in her chest than physical hurt?
The thought of his precious cherry blossom alone and abandoned by him was a deeply troubling one for Sasuke, so he pushed that feeling aside, too. It was a skill he had been honing rather often lately, having spent more time around her than he would have preferred. Which was to say nothing of the fact that he had mentally referred to Sakura in such affectionate terms to begin with, which both irritated and perplexed him.
What gives you the right to call her that? Sasuke told himself with a snarl as he leaped forward, ducked under the swinging arm of a white Zetsu, and bisected the creature with a swift stroke of his chidori palm. He pretended that it was his doppelgänger as he did so. All you do is abandon and hurt her. She isn't yours.
The fact that Sasuke saw his treatment of Sakura—aloof, cold, feigned indifference—as necessary did little to quell his regret and self-hatred over it. After all, it was because of him and his mistakes that it was necessary in the first place, wasn't it? Sasuke was an ex-criminal. He was a selfish and complicated and incredibly flawed jerk, not her.
The shinobi pivoted, purple and red eyes rapidly scanning the movements of other Zetsu around him. They were clumsy in his vision: slow, vulnerable, and predictable. Every facet of their attacks, from the tiniest giveaway to the most obvious feint, stood out in stark clarity. Sasuke was easily able to calculate the trajectories of their movements and plan accordingly. It was such a simple and routine thing for the man to do that he found himself acting without realizing it. Sasuke lost himself in a subconscious battle frenzy, his conscious brain free to wander his inner realm of conflicting emotions.
Another Otsutsuki experiment charged in, spun, and lashed a kick in his direction. Sasuke felt his body lean back, fly past the construct's reach, and bifurcate the entire leg as he swept his hand towards the monster's torso. It died instantly, melting into a viscous puddle of white matter.
That should be you.
Sasuke swerved through a pair of Zetsu faster than either could react, chopping one of them to pieces as he kicked the other into a third opponent. Both of them went down in a tangle of flailing limbs.
He let out a low, animalistic growl: the closest thing to a battle cry he could characteristically manage.
Everything comes back to you, the Uchiha thought.
If Sakura were to travel with him, she'd be doomed to a life of danger and emotional vampirism. Sasuke was self-aware enough to realize that if he were to accept her feelings, any relationship he might be able to tolerate would be defined by his neediness. It would be fundamentally unequal. Sakura would have to give far more love—love that Sasuke knew he desperately craved just as much as it frightened him—than he would ever be able to reciprocate.
Sasuke erratically reversed direction and took a zetsu by surprise, spinning around its feeble attempt to strike him. He dispatched it with another clean stroke.
True, there was some part of him that wondered what things might be like if he finally decided to embrace Sakura's love. Those thoughts had been frequent during his previous travels, though not nearly as frequent as they had been ever since she had found him in the forest. Sasuke's resistance was wearing thin, thinner than it had ever been, which was one of the main reasons he had decided to leave. It was his defensive mechanism, one that had both saved and condemned him throughout the wayward shinobi's life.
When he didn't know what to do about someone, he pushed them away.
Alone was safe. Alone meant that he wouldn't have to lose anyone or worry about their judgment. That was the lesson fate had taught him, had engraved on his soul time and time again.
Normally, it was fear, rage, and disgust that Sasuke was concerned about. Sakura, though, showed him something far worse.
Pity.
Sasuke ducked, took the legs out from under one attacker with a well-placed kick, amputated the arms of another, and locked a third in a world of genjutsu with a simple glance. The white zombies did not react, and simply struggled to keep coming after him in whatever manner their ruined bodies could support.
A feeling of nausea rose in Sasuke's stomach, just as it always did whenever he was confused.
Pity. The one thing he'd never received from anyone other than her. Or at least, not in a genuine way. Where the world saw a crazed psychopath, where Naruto saw his redeemable friend, Sakura saw a man worth giving her heart to despite the inevitability of having it torn to pieces. The kunoichi saw things in him that Sasuke believed had died a long time ago...or perhaps ones that he simply wished to believe had died. It was easier to hate himself, to think that he was intrinsically flawed and cursed. It was easier to push people away, even though, deep down, Sasuke despised his state just as much as he despised himself.
To break the pattern of his life, though, would be far worse. It would be tantamount to admitting his guilt and foolishness, admitting that he should have done things differently.
The Uchiha was a black-blue blur as he sprinted, contorted, and carved his way through a pack of zetsu with electric grace. Dozens of bodies were left in his wake.
Killing. That's all you're capable of, whether they're an amazing, beautiful woman's dreams or the servants of a dead god.
As Sasuke fought, he imagined what life must have been like for Sakura in the Leaf village. She was a highly skilled kunoichi, a war hero, a world-renowned healer, and a beautiful woman both inside and out. She had responsibilities, goals, prospects, a career, plenty of friends, and everything else one needed to be happy.
Selfish...that's what it would be or deny her a future in that life.
Yet, wasn't it also selfish to deny Sakura's reciprocal desire to be with him, simply because he was too emotionally stunted and vulnerable to deal with risk?
Sasuke backflipped over one of the few zetsu that still stood and slammed it with a solid punch that hallowed its chest. The humanoid flew forward at incredible speed under the force of his blow, then exploded into shards of chalky flesh.
Sasuke let out an inward, psychic scream. This is just too damn complicated!
Never before had his identity felt so in flux, so undermined and strengthened at the same time. Sasuke felt like a living paradox, a joke of a person perpetuated by a cruel universe. It was a feeling only rivaled in intensity by the night of the massacre itself.
Sasuke snarled again and tightened his fist in defiance. He might have had doubts about his actions, he might have have felt sick from the sheer weight of his contradictions, but there was one thought that stood out clearly in his mind.
It was a memory of his council with the reanimated kage during the war.
Sasuke recalled the First's words in particular.
The Uchiha were a clan of both extreme love and extreme hate.
The description certainly seemed fitting to Sasuke in that moment. If he couldn't understand himself, if he could not reconcile love, then he could at least immerse himself in hate for a worthy target.
At that moment, the zetsu attacking him seemed as worthy a target for aggression as any.
Sasuke exploded into motion, no longer bothering to utilize the methodical style he was known for. He attacked recklessly, pounding the zetsu to dusty liquid with savage blows while he imagined each of them was something he hated.
The world, for making him such a steaming mess. Himself, for all the times he had missed his chance at happiness. Himself again, for succumbing to rage, for hurting Sakura…
Sakura.
Sasuke snarled incoherently. He struck chaotically, taking easily avoidable hits as he decimated his enemies with berserk anger. Soon, all the zetsu were dead, and the Uchiha was covered in cuts, blood, and bruises.
He fell to his knees amid the rocky battlefield of what passed for zetsu corpses. Their numbers were so great that the detritus completely covered the floor and much of the walls as well. Sasuke choked on lungfuls of air as he slowly surveyed the evidence of his destruction.
His thoughts still lingered, but they were muted, distant. The visceral challenge of injuring and being injured, the pain and victorious pride and adrenaline surge, they all washed over the Uchiha in one sublime moment. He took several minutes to relish the freeing beauty of it as his mind went blank with satisfaction.
Combat, like loneliness, was a magical thing. When he fought, and for a short time after, it was as if all of Sasuke's troubles melted away and he finally achieved the serenity that he required to fend off the omnipresent shadow of his past.
It would have been nice, Sasuke thought in a moment of lucidity, to be with her.
Hearing Sakura's passionate (yet misguided, he told himself) defense of his character that night in the backyard of their hotel room had awakened something within the Uchiha. Even now, Sasuke could barely understand, let alone come to terms with it.
Thinking of how close he had been to receiving Sakura's ultimate confession, to hearing those three little words that he had barely realized he'd needed to hear more than anything else in the world until she had shown him...was uncomfortable, to say the least. In spite of this, Sasuke found his brain drifting back to what he was beginning to understand had been a fateful night, just as it had many times since.
They hadn't revisited the topic over during the interim in which he had been helping Sakura recover from her injuries: he, out of embarrassment, and she, he guessed, out of respect for his personal space. The ultimate irony was that Sakura's sensitivity to his complex needs only endeared her to him that much more.
And now...you'll never get a chance to hear those words from her ever again.
An intense feeling of burning regret stabbed at his heart, but Sasuke accepted it as his cross to bear.
At length, the tired shinobi remembered where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. Gathering his energy and resolve, Sasuke stood on quivering legs and turned to face the statue once more.
"Any other tricks for me?" the Uchiha taunted.
Predictably, there was no reply.
Sasuke smirked. "Good," he said, limping over to the altar and the scroll that waited for him there.
It was long and thick: probably four feet in length and half as many in diameter. The paper was contained in a glass tube sealed with cloth, wax, and other substances to ensure its preservation. Sasuke let his eyes drain a little more chakra from his body as he inspected the item for traps or other signs of deception.
Finding none, the Uchiha reached for the scroll tube.
The moment his fingers brushed the glass walls of the cylinder, the groan of stone grinding against stone assaulted Sasuke's ears. His ebony locks swished as he jerked his head upwards to face the direction of the sound.
A shifting mass of rock was erupting from the statue above him, whose rinnegan had resurfaced. The outlines of the modest Otsutsuki depiction were expanding...growing. Arms, legs, and torso bulged as chunks of earth were ripped from the ground by invisible force and rapidly attached to the statue like a sheath or layer of armor. Its 'body' melted into mud as these new components were added, allowing it to completely reshape its form.
By the time Sasuke's exhausted brain and had processed the bizarre sight, a ten-foot tall golem was stalking towards him, shoulders hunched in anger and disproportionately massive fists raised with pummeling intent. One of them crashed towards the Uchiha's body like a living boulder of destruction, and he was certain that the creature would kill him instantly if that strike connected.
After a brief, pulse-pounding moment of struggle, Sasuke was able to send an electrical signal to his arm and legs. The former firmly scooped up the scroll and braced it against his chest while the latter two kicked with all their might, sending the shinobi sailing backwards through the air.
Not one heartbeat later, an animate mountain of stone slammed the space where he had been standing. A shockwave reverberated through the whole cavern, nearly causing Sasuke to lose his balance as he landed. Cracks spiderwebbed outward in a spiralling pattern, and several hanging spikes of rock shattered from their perches.
What is that thing?! Sasuke pondered as he tried to catch his bearings. Some kind of automated construct, probably created by the deva path. That much was certain. What was less certain was how Kaguya had managed to create such a magnificent and deadly contraption on a delayed trigger. Even less certain were its weaknesses. Sasuke's physical energy was running on fumes, and his chakra wasn't far behind. He had enough to staunch the flow of blood from his careless wounds. Beyond that, all he'd be able to manage was a few minutes of high-level elemental ninjutsu, and even less than that of his doujutsu.
In short, the man needed to figure something out, and fast.
Unfortunately, his opponent didn't seem all that inclined to give him time.
"Fire Style," Sasuke spoke, voice low and deadly. He grew a long, sinewy, mechanical Asura path arm from his stump shoulder as he did so. The limb clutched the scroll case, freeing up his natural hand. The Uchiha raised it to his lips in a 'shh' gesture and focused his chakra. "Fireball Jutsu."
A roaring ball of orange fire exploded from his mouth. Its sheer heat caused the air to depressurize and whip uncontrollably, battering both Sasuke and the earth construct with powerful gusts. The former's cloak and hair flapped wildly in response, while the latter simply barrelled through the ninjutsu attack with single-minded determination.
Steam suddenly rose from the space where the fireball should have impacted the golem's stony body. Sasuke squinted, peering past the grey clouds and orange flares of light in the room.
What he saw shocked him. Water was pouring from the monster's mouth in a jet, devouring the oncoming fireball before it even had a chance to singe a single pebble. Within moments, the entire fire attack had been countered by the spray of nearly-freezing water.
Sasuke gasped and managed to leap to the side as the golem kept on coming. Luckily, it had been slowed enough by the distraction he had created, giving him a few extra, precious seconds-which the Uchiha had sorely needed. His enemy came within reach as it crashed past him, winding up poised at the entrance of the cavern before swiveling to face him from several dozen feet away.
As much as Sasuke's pride hated the idea, the man knew he would have to retreat and fight another day. His eyes flicked to the only exit tunnel as he pondered the proper move to facilitate his escape.
Before he could decide, the golem was moving again. This time, instead of charging, the earthen beast leaned over and spun its head on its shoulders. A new face with slightly different features stared hatefully at Sasuke, swiftly replacing the old one.
It was at that moment that Sasuke noticed something he hadn't had time to before: the statue-turned-jutsu-wielding-rock-guardian had not one, not two, but five faces, each protruding from the same head on different sides like a macabre parody of a multi-faceted gem.
One for each elemental style, the Uchiha thought. What else should he have expected, with rinnegan abilities in play?
Sasuke raised a hand to perform more ninjutsu, but his opponent beat him to it. Without even having to make a one-handed sign, the creature belched a gout of mud and silt from the set of lips that faced the tunnel entrance. The murky liquid pooled and swirled ominously on the ground before rapidly shaping itself into a wall-like formation. Then, the the golem slammed one of its hands down on the floor below, causing the brown mixture to instantly solidify and become solid rock.
Sasuke's eyes went wide. He panicked for split second, then changed tactics. Instead of weaving a sign, he flicked his fingers in a fan shape. Instantly, a barrage of senbon-like lightning darts issued forth and collided with the earth wall.
Or at least, they tried to. The rinnegan-construct's array of heads rapidly re-arranged themselves one more time. A third face that Sasuke hadn't seen yet faced the darts and blew forcefully. In response, a gust of powerful air crashed into the chidori technique, causing it to immediately dissipate as the vital energies sustaining it were countered by the opposing element's force.
Sasuke sighed. It seemed that no matter what he did, this thing was just going to keep countering his attacks faster than he could anticipate them. Without the need for hand signs, the only thing in his arsenal that stood a chance of bringing his enemy down was amaterasu or a half-susanoo' at the very least. Neither of which Sasuke felt he could sustain long enough to matter.
Think, idiot! The Uchiha scolded himself as he slowly backed away from the golem, which was re-orienting itself for another charge. What would Oorochimaru say if he saw you like this? he berated, memories of long hours of ruthlessly brutal training popping into his mind. He would have had you beaten for not having figured something like this out yet!
In the time it took for Sasuke to complete his mental dialogue, thundering footsteps had already closed half the distance. In a desperate effort to buy himself more time, the Uchiha thrust out his palm and channeled a shinra tensei.
There was a surreal popping sound, and the golem wavered. It was immediately halted and began to struggle against Sasuke's technique, upper body leaned forward into the gravitational burst as its arms flexed themselves in a vertical push-up motion. The image would have been comical if the situation hadn't been so dire.
Within seconds, Sasuke's deva path was losing to the overwhelming physical strength of his opponent. The guardian began to inch forward second by second, feet digging massive ruts into the cavern floor. At full strength, Sasuke would have been able to easily topple the monster (or at the very least, stun it long enough to follow up with a second attack), but the man knew he was far from his peak efficiency. His chakra network protested as he felt the shinra tensei slowly dropping, and he was forced to end the attack prematurely. A contest of raw power wasn't something he could challenge the golem with and hope to emerge victorious.
What, then? Sasuke thought as he barely managed to blur past a third charge. If not strength…
An idea flashed into Sasuke's brain, and he sent a silent thanks to his old mentor for his cruel ways.
His free hand shot out and embedded a chidori-laced kunai about halfway up one of the side walls. A string of ninja wire trailed from it, and Sasuke used that to propel himself towards the weapon just quickly enough to dodge a savage punch.
The moment his feet connected with the wall, Sasuke forced the perfect amount of chakra into them, just as Sakura had taught him to do all those years ago. He smiled wanly as he recalled the memory: it was both sad and bitter with nostalgia.
The Uchiha swiveled to face his enemy, which was now slowly pacing across the width of the cavern as if looking for something. A boulder to throw at me, Sasuke thought. Too bad I won't be giving you enough time.
Sasuke made a quick sign, and there were two puffs of smoke on each side of him. Dividing his barely-existent chakra levels across four additional clones was difficult enough on its own, so he shuddered in pain and numb exhaustion.
The Uchiha felt his eyes sagging closed. The lids were so, so, heavy, and all he wanted to do was rest.
As darkness creeped in on the corners of his vision, the shinobi wondered if death would really be so bad after all…
It would certainly seem to solve a lot of problems...both his, and the world's.
Well, he supposed, the entire world...except Sakura.
She'd want me to live, Sasuke thought. I owe her that much, at least.
The Uchiha forced his eyelids to raise, and the motion was harder than lifting a boulder one-handed. Still, he managed to jolt them hard enough to work…
...just in time to see a sharp, spear-like stalagmite coming right towards him.
Sasuke snarled an annoyed "tch" at himself and scattered in five directions. The four clones and their mechanical-armed original spread out in a radial fashion, surrounding the golem from all angles. The stone's impact caused a few of them to slip as their concentration and horribly low chakra levels nearly ended the wall-waking techniques, but all of them managed to recover before the rock guardian had broken off another stalagmite.
Two things happened at the exact same time.
Each Sasuke raised one hand in front of them and gathered what little chakra they possessed. The clones knew that they'd get one shot before dying from the effort alone. There was but one chance to make the plan work, and they were determined not to waste it. Elemental energy bubbled up before them: one Sasuke with lightning jutsu, another with earth, a third with water, and so on.
As he had expected, the golem responded in kind. Each face unhinged its jaws and began to conjure a ball of their own elemental energies; one for each type. At first, the creature held back the jutsus, ten eyes studiously scanning the arrangement of Sasuke's.
Sasuke didn't hold back his attacks, and couldn't have even if he wanted to. He let each clone display clearly what type of jutsu they were going to use: there was no point in trying to hide anything from the creature. Lightning crackled, earth rumbled, fire bellowed, winds howled, and water flowed.
The Uchiha could have sworn he saw a faint glimmer of a smirk on his opponent's faces as it anticipated the configuration of his attacks and shuffled. Within the blink of an eye, the guardian was now aiming elemental bombs of the perfect counters at Sasuke's own: water against his fire, lightning against his earth, fire against his wind, wind against his lightning, and earth against his water.
Then, without hesitation, the guardian unleashed hell.
The Sasukes could only watch as doom approached.
And watch they did.
Carefully peering at one another out of the corner of their eyes, five rinnegans focused on their counterparts. With a sudden flash, the positions of each Sasuke were reversed so that their prepared attacks were now readied for a different element than the golem had intended.
Sasuke's fire was now aimed against wind, his earth opposing water, his water opposing fire, his lightning meeting earth, and his wind barrelling into lightning.
The golem seemed to jerk in surprise, but it was too late. Sasuke's space-time transportation was instantaneous, and the beast had barely realized what was happening by the time Sasuke's jutsus had obliterated its own. It tried to rearrange its faces once again, but was too slow.
What happened next was pure carnage.
Sasuke's water missile cascaded into the guardian's side, causing chunks of rock to disintegrate from the force as it stumbled and leaned directly into a fireball. Steam rose around it as the flames melted a fifth of its body down to mud. Then, a heartbeat later, lightning infused the steam cloud, surrounding the monster in a halo of searing energy. Blackened, it began to collapse, but the steam was suddenly replaced by a powerful slash of air that eviscerated its midsection and removed half an arm. Lastly, there was an earth spear...which settled directly into the crack left by the wind slice and ripped open massive swaths of stone. The guardian wavered, then collapsed in a heap, more than sixty-percent of its body totally missing.
Sasuke smirked, but his victory was short lived. As he had expected, the clones puffed out of existence. At the same time, the original plummeted downward, losing its balance as a wave of nausea and agony threatened to overwhelm it.
The Uchiha managed to release another kunai-with-wire, but the maneuver was ungraceful. He clattered painfully to the rocky floor, only half absorbing the impact as he rolled to a stop. His bones protested, hundreds of tiny daggers stabbing him from the inside, but the pain simply meant Sasuke was alive. The scroll case cracked and bounced several times before coming to a halt, the arm that had been wrapped around it fading into non-existence.
Take that, you bastard, the Uchiha thought with a grimace as he began to lose the battle against unconsciousness. This time, he would welcome the embrace of sleep, knowing he had defeated the Temple's devious traps.
Something moved in Sasuke's field of vision, and the shinobi pried his eyes open as he slumped backwards into a sitting position.
It was the guardian, rising on shaky, battered legs. Its arms and torso were skinny and disproportionate in many areas, causing the creature to stumble. It fell several times, then finally managed to stand. Pieces of its body slowly floated back together and afixed themselves in their old positions, as if the monster was using the deva path in a mockery of regeneration.
After several seconds, the still-disfigured entity managed to start shuffling towards Sasuke.
The shinobi groaned, his muscles protesting as he sluggishly tried to crawl backwards.
It was no use. Hot flashes of agony buried his mental commands, paralyzing him. Sasuke tried harder to move, to fight, to do anything, but his body simply wouldn't listen. It had finally suffered enough abuse and was putting its metaphorical foot down. The Uchiha was too tired, too damaged and weakened from blood loss and chakra depletion. Sasuke seriously doubted he would have been able to throw a shuriken at that moment.
Simply put, he was done.
Sasuke did something he never would have expected in this situation. He had stared death in the face many times before, but never had he reacted like this.
Not with a laugh.
It was delightfully ironic, the shinobi decided, that he would be killed in this fashion. After all his years of wreaking havoc on the world, helping to start a war that had culminated with a goddess, rampaging against the kage, and much, much more, lady luck would come to claim him during his attempt to atone.
The universe must truly hate me, Sasuke thought as the earthen guardian loomed over him.
Vaguely, the idea of using izanagi entered the Uchiha's head. He dismissed it, though. There was no good reason for a worthless person like himself to go on living. What did he have to live for, anyway? An empty life devoid of companionship? It wasn't as if Sasuke was destined to raise a family. In fact, the sheer impossibility of it only made the man chuckle harder.
"Go ahead and do it," the Uchiha told the earth monster with a glare. "End me."
If the creature possessed enough intelligence to understand him, it didn't show it. It simply raised one-still repairing hand in a slamming motion.
I'm sorry, Sakura, Sasuke thought. And he meant it, too. Even though the woman would never know of his demise and would never discover his body, even though he would die alone and unnoticed and uncared for by the world, he still regretted the fact that he couldn't go on living like she would have wanted him to.
As he fixed the golem with a steely glare, unflinching even though he was moments away from death, Sasuke yearned. He wished with all his heart and soul, genuinely, for the first time, that he had not abandoned the village to join Oorochimaru as a genin.
That singular event, in retrospect, had led to his downfall. It was the first decision in a series of selfish acts that had ruined any chance at happiness Sasuke might have had. It was the first action in a pattern of emotional abuse against the one person who had eternally sympathized with his plight and wanted to help him. The sheer stupidity of the Uchiha's younger self astounded and disgusted him.
A life, wasted, Sasuke thought as tears slid down his cheeks. Fingernails dug into his palms with such intensity that they drew rivulets of blood, soaking his forearm, but the Uchiha was heedless.
Some say that a person's life flashes before their eyes in the moments before their death. For Sasuke Uchiha, this was certainly the case.
However, the shinobi's visions were dominated not by memories of cold, hard, reality, but warm fantasies of what could have been.
Sasuke saw images of himself sprawled in bed with Sakura on lazy afternoons as he laved kisses upon kisses across her body. He saw the couple making sweet, tender, passionate love...as well as sex of a much more carnal nature. He saw a slideshow of Sakura getting pregnant, happily bearing him a child, and helping him raise it to continue the Uchiha lineage. Sasuke saw he and Sakura holding hands as they grew old together, surrounded by their loving friends in an alternate version of konoha that he had not betrayed.
He wasn't supposed to have died this way, being crushed to death by an angry guardian for an alien goddess. Sasuke knew with certainty that he was supposed to have let go of his hatred at a much younger age. He was supposed to have let Sakura help him endure his pain, he was supposed to have undertaken all the adventures he had seen in his mind's eye with her at his side.
Yes...it would have been far better, that way. The fantasy was cloyingly sweet in its beauty and just as bitter in its unfortunate impossibility.
Still, Sasuke mused, there are worse ways to die than dreaming of what could have been.
The Uchiha closed his eyes, then took a deep breath that he knew would be his last.
And so Sasuke waited; silent, still, and calm. He accepted his death with open arms and had made his peace...of sorts. It was time for the misery to end.
…
…
Only, the end did not come.
Sasuke peeled back one of his lids and saw that the temple guardian was turning away from him as if distracted by something. It took a tentative step towards the rock wall it had erected, ignoring the defenseless Uchiha entirely.
There was a loud crunch that shook the foundations of the wall. Cracks began to spread along the edges, emanating from a crater in the center. Within seconds, the entire object had crumbled to dust from what had evidently been a heavy blow.
Sasuke blinked the blood from his eyes and struggled to see who, or what, stood in the threshold of the cavern. He didn't see how it could have been a human being, much less a shinobi or someone that he knew. The Uchiha hadn't told anyone where he was going. In fact, it was likely that he was the only person in the world who knew of this remote and ancient location.
He knew better than to call out to the fellow intruder, lest they have hostile intent towards him as well. Better to wait and see how the newcomer would behave towards Sasuke's enemy first before making a move.
Luckily, he did not have to wait long.
"Sasuke?" a familiar voice called to him, immediately removing all doubts concerning the entity's intent.
A bolt relief washed through Sasuke, but he frowned all the same. It wasn't that the man had necessarily wanted to die. In fact, he would have preferred life if only for the simple reason that it gave him more time to futilely attempt atonement.
Rather, his disappointment was due to the fact that his rescuer was the last person he wanted to see at that moment.
"Sakura," Sasuke weakly responded. The blurriness hadn't faded from his eyes, and although his sharingan had already disappeared, he was finally able to make out the woman's image. "Leave. It's too strong."
He saw the pinkette scoff and put her dainty, yet powerful hands on those lovely hips. "And leave you to die here?" she taunted. "I don't think so."
"Sakura," Sasuke barked. He was in no mood to argue the point, and his heart was pounding. He couldn't think straight with Sakura standing in the same room as foe he himself had been unable to defeat. Accepting his demise had been one thing, but now that it involved her, he was beyond panic.
Fortunately for the kunoichi, the Uchiha was interrupted by a bout of blood-filled coughing. The woman's pretty face twisted in a frown. "It's ok. I'll get you out of here."
"You don't understand," Sasuke managed to choke between asphyxiating coughs. "It's…too strong."
The warning came too late, and the construct was already rushing at the Haruno. She raised her fists in a boxing stance and met it halfway, boulder-like fist colliding with the many times smaller flesh and blood one.
There was a sickening crack of what Sasuke feared was bone as force rippled through the cavern and then went silent. A long moment passed, both opponents facing off in the exact center of the room. Neither shifted their weight, as if waiting to see whose strength caved first.
"Sakura!" Sasuke yelled, then squinted closer.
The kunoichi was smiling.
That's when he saw it: thousands of tiny ruptures along the stony skin of the earthen creature. Its arm sagged, bent, and its entire body began to slide backwards. Rock creaked with rage as the thing redoubled its effort to overpower the small woman with monstrous strength.
It was futile. Sakura calmly opened her hand (her one hand) and gripped the edge of the defender's rocky fist in claw-like fingers. Instantly, the seams in the beast's arms doubled in size as the structural damage began to multiply. Sasuke felt the telltale tingle of chakra in the air as it did so, Sakura no doubt pouring everything she had into that one fist.
"What's the matter?" she taunted at the disfigured faces. "Not strong enough for a girl?"
The thing twitched angrily as if it understood her and used her iron-clad grip to stabilize itself as it pivoted, aiming a kick at her head.
Sakura simply smashed her free hand against the ruined arm, fracturing it entirely. The limb clattered to the ground in a million pieces as she used her own momentum to spin towards her opponent. While speed wasn't necessarily the kunoichi's forte, it was clear that she was a lot faster than a hulking mound of rock, especially when said mound was off-balance and half-destroyed to begin with. As such, Sakura easily darted inside the reach of its leg and was able to attack the back of its knee with a crescent kick.
Chakra thrummed in the air as the blow connected. That limb, too, near-instantly shattered in a spray of stone chips and dirt, causing the guardian to flail wildly as it hopped backward on its one remaining foot.
Sakura didn't plan on letting it get away, however. The kunoichi brought her left elbow perpendicular to her enemy's chest as she did so and jabbed outward with a roar of "Shannaro!"
Just that little tap sent the monster flying across the cavern, where it collapsed in a heap of lifeless boulders amid the ruins of the altar. Even so, components quickly began to lift in the air and reposition themselves.
Sakura cocked her head. "Regeneration?"
A moment letter, several kunai appeared in her hands with explosive tags attached. "Here, let's put a stop to that," she said, unleashing the weapons with a casual toss. They struck home, the paper instantly igniting. Within seconds, a loud boom had enveloped the pile of dying temple guardian, flames and force finally rendering it an inert slurry of earth.
When it became clear that the creature wasn't going to keep on regenerating, Sakura smirked in satisfaction. The expression was quickly replaced by one of worry, though, as the medic-nin came running over to Sasuke.
"You're hurt," she stated somberly, but with a hint of chastisement.
Sasuke shrugged, the motion sending spikes of pain along his spine and into his head. "Tch."
Sakura gently helped to prop him against an outcropping. "Sorry," she apologized with a wince as Sasuke groaned in pain. "You'll feel better soon."
Sasuke noted that her words were clipped, tone dry; absent of her usual warmth and empathy. She had put on what he assumed was her professional 'nurse demeanor', a fact which galled him. The Uchiha had never heard such a thing before, it was only in the absence of Sakura's ordinary persona that he realized how much he had taken it for granted. He hated seeing her this way, seeing her treat him like anyone else.
Like someone who wasn't special to her.
"Sakura…" he moaned dizzily.
"Don't talk," she barked back at him. "Save your energy. I need to focus."
Sasuke scowled, and his attendant shot him a glare of warning as he did so. He bit back the urge to protest her treatment of him and simply let the woman work, though. His eyes met hers for a brief instant, and the Uchiha perceived that her orbs were misty with the beginnings of tears.
Seeing that, he almost wanted to cry himself, and looked quickly away.
Sasuke pretended to study a barren patch of wall as Sakura worked, her hands aglow with green chakra. A sensation that was somehow itchy, icy, and hot at the same time prickled his tissue wherever her hands passed over him. Lines of pain curled inside him over and over again as tendons, ligaments, and muscle fibers re-knit themselves. It seemed that wounds hurt as much to heal as they did to receive them…but this was a lesson Sasuke had learned under the much rougher care of Kabuto.
It was only when he had met Karin and Sakura that he had realized medic-nin could somewhat numb the pain of those they healed. Now, though, Sakura was doing him no such courtesy.
Not that he blamed her.
It took several minutes for the Uchiha to be restored to a stable, walking condition. Sakura leaned back on her haunches and eyed him. "How's it feel?"
Sasuke opened his mouth to respond, still terrified of looking his companion in the eyes. "Why did you follow me?" he asked emotionlessly, shoulders slumped and defeated.
The Uchiha saw the kunoichi's chest heave in a heavy sigh. He couldn't tell if she heard the subtext of his question or not.
Why bother for someone like me?
Why risk your life, when all I do is hurt you?
If she did, Sakura didn't show it.
Sasuke risked a quick glance at her face.
"Because I…" Sakura started, hesitating, weighing the merit of what she was about to say. She bit her lip in that cute way he so admired. "Because I care about you, Sasuke," she finally finished. "I'll always be there for you when you need me."
The words stung the Uchiha more surely than the lingering ache of his scars ever could have.
Sakura wasn't proud of her words: they sounded forced and solemn, as if she had been making a painful observation about the nature of reality. Sasuke could have easily imagined her shrugging and saying 'people die' or 'wars happen' in the same tone of voice.
It was a simple fact, the shinobi realized, that Sakura would never give up on him, no matter what. She would always run to him, no matter how much he hurt her, no matter how little he deserved it, and certainly no matter how much she resented herself for it.
If guilt were a physical object, a mountain as wide as the sky would have crashed down upon him. It was all Sasuke could do to prevent himself from crying at the horror and injustice of it all right then and there.
"Come on," Sakura said with a depressingly sad smile. "Let's get you out of here."
Sasuke nodded his consent and allowed himself to suffer to embarrassment of being helped up by her.
As Sakura braced Sasuke's limping body with one arm wrapped around his tender midsection, she flicked her chin at the scroll case. "What's that?"
"I don't know," Sasuke answered honestly, his voice low and hoarse. "But it's what I came here for. Something about the Otsutsuki, hopefully."
Sakura nodded her agreement and clasped her hands together in front of Sasuke. An identical copy of the kunoichi appeared and instantly walked over to scroll, carrying it in her arms as the original continued to help her patient limp out of the room.
Being this close to his greatest source of joy and his greatest source of pain was beginning to drive Sasuke mad, so he decided to distract himself by engaging in what little conversation she could tolerate.
"How did you find me?"
At first, the woman didn't reply. Then, "It's a cutting-edge medical ninjutsu I developed."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"It functions by altering the chemical composition of someone I touch in very slight ways," the kunoichi explained. This time she wore a genuine smile. "Not enough for anyone to notice, but enough to change their pheromones. I infuse some of my own chakra into it and inject a corresponding chemical in my own body. It effectively creates a link that manifests as the ability to track the target by smell alone."
Sasuke nodded, impressed. He wasn't quite sure that he understood the mechanics of the technique Sakura was describing, though. He might have been a genius when it came to ninjutsu, but his method of accessing power was instinctual. Innate. Focal knowledge of the scientific laws that governed chakra were far too esoteric for him to grasp, given his perspective. Not only were they antithetical to his entire experience as a shinobi, but knowing them might actually harm his fighting style.
The Uchiha admired his companion's obvious skill, however. Even with his absurd variety of abilities, he knew he would never be able to apply chakra in such a sophisticated manner. Still, Sasuke decided that he'd like to at least attempt reading one of Sakura's books on chakra dynamics and medical ninjutsu one day.
"A tracking ninjutsu," he blurted to fill the silence.
"Yeah, I suppose," Sakura said, patiently waiting for him to make progress up the steep tunnel. "Although it bears more resemblance to genjutsu in terms of energy patterns and perceptual manifestation. Last I heard, they were still trying to classify it."
Sasuke felt his interest in the kunoichi growing. He had always been at least mildly interested in Sakura, of course. It just seemed that lately he was peeling back more and more layers to the woman than he had imagined there even were.
Now it was her turn to question him, so the kunoichi asked about the battle that had taken place. Sasuke obliged, and quickly rattled off a terse description of what had transpired before she'd arrived. Sakura listened politely, and interjected a few comments.
"It seems she was more powerful, and more prominent in the past, than we had imagined," Sakura said. "I'm glad that you're exploring these ruins, but you must be more careful, Sasuke."
The Uchiha didn't respond. He knew that trying to explain his recklessness to her and the reasons she shouldn't worry about him was utterly pointless.
"I'm starting to think that investigating the Kaguya's past should be my top priority," he decided to say instead.
Sakura quirked an eyebrow. "Even more important than making sure Shin is dead?"
Sasuke nodded. "I want to tie that loose end more than you can imagine, Sakura," he explained. "That man is a psychopath who clearly has no qualms about exploiting civilians. However, he must know that he can't take me in a fair fight. If I stay away from settlements, then everything should be fine."
Sakura scrunched her nose. "How do you know he won't simply start hurting people until you show yourself?"
"It's a possibility," Sasuke admitted. "But not a very likely one. Shin wasn't an idiot, but he's far too crazed for such a meticulous plan. What he did back at the resort required patience. It was the perfect battlefield with which to fight us."
"So, you think there's someone even higher than him pulling the strings?"
"It's obvious. Those four shinobi we fought were probably working under the same person," Sasuke elaborated. "A mastermind who has been behind all the attacks against me. It never really made sense how so many people kept on finding me. I didn't suspect anything until recently, though, because the gangs were pretty weak. But now I think I know why."
It was Sakura's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"They were gathering information about me," Sasuke finished. "Trying to see what I've been up to, where I've been going. Testing my skills and limits, retracing my steps. Most of them were probably basic mercenaries or sellswords who didn't even now who they were working for, if they were working for anyone to begin with and not just simply leaked my location."
Understanding showed on Sakura's face. "If that's the case…then it means they know you're after Otsutsuki relics," she finished. "What's why you came here."
"Yes," Sasuke confirmed. "I have a feeling that ancient knowledge of the Otsutsuki is tied up with Shin and his master. Why else would he need my eyes so badly, if not to exploit their power?"
Sakura visibly shuddered at the idea. "Do you think they want to bring back Kaguya?"
"I don't know."
The next minute or so of the journey passed in tense silence. Eventually, the pair of ninja stood before the entrance to one of the dusty living quarters Sasuke had seen before. Sakura peered inside, then swept away some of the cobwebs.
"It's as good a place as any," she gingerly stated, helping Sasuke onto one of the stone slabs that served as beds.
"Give me a day's rest," Sasuke promised, "and I'll get us out of here with my rinnegan."
Sakura nodded as she began to use summoning scrolls to set up camp. "Just so you know, Sasuke," she spoke, refusing to look at him, "I know why you did it."
Sasuke's breath hitched in his chest. He wanted to speak, to tell her that he was sorry, but it would have been a lie. He still clung to the conviction that she was better off without him, but in light of Sakura's determination and new tracking technique, trying to push her away seemed futile. He would just have to accept that she would travel with him if she wanted to.
It was a hard pill to swallow.
"What about Lord Fifth, and the Leaf?" he asked.
"Tsunade-sama finally sent me a personal reply to your message," Sakura explained. "She decided it would be too risky for me to come back to the village, now that Shin knows I'm a potential weakness for you. I've been given permission to handle the situation in any way I see fit."
"And what do you see?" Sasuke asked.
There was a long, pregnant pause. "That you need my help."
As much as his pride stung, Sasuke could not deny the truthfulness of her words.
"At least, you need it a lot more than the genin I've been treating for sprained ankles and fractured fingers, lately. Karin, Ino, and Hinata can handle the hospital for a while without me."
Sasuke almost chuckled despite himself, imagining the medical ninjutsu pioneer dealing with trivial wounds and annoying kids. In his mind, she bore the troubles with grace, however.
She'd make a good mother.
Sasuke shook his head and decided to carefully inspect the ceiling as means of clearing his brain of the disturbing thought. Much to his chagrin, however, the man found himself unable to expunge his fantasies of seeing Sakura in that context.
Images of her raising his kids buzzed around inside his skull like incessant flies. At first, he did his best to ignore them and force himself to sleep. As tedious hours passed, it became evident that his subconscious mind didn't want to give up on the idea. It grew clearer and clearer that the Uchiha would never be able to rest no matter how long he stubbornly laid there.
And so, despite his reservations, Sasuke embraced the visions of an alternate future. He let them buzz around in his head without opposition until the thoughts became more like the gentle, soothing water of a brook. He even managed to take some calming solace in that fact that he could at least live vicariously through his daydreams.
It wasn't long after that that Sasuke felt himself drifting off into sleep, fantasies of living out a mundane, domestic existence with Sakura comforting his ever-present pain.