Under the Rabbit Moon

Recap: Sakura looked down at the body of the old man in bed and shut her eyes. She knew she couldn't keep this secret, it would devour her daily. It was too much and would hurt others too much. But she couldn't bring strife knowingly into the Senju clan at such a sensitive time. The fate of the future of the Village Hidden in the Leaves rested on these new peace talks.

'What do I do?'

'Find a way to win.'

When Sakura opened her eyes and looked up at Tobirama he was watching her. She could feel his eyes on her like a physical gaze wasn't soft like Hashirama's or Kawarama's, but it was honest and clear in a way that was all his.

"Will you trust me?" she asked, remembering what he told her last time, about not trusting her or the goddess that lived inside of her. His words were fresh in her brain.

"Do I have a choice?"

Sakura reached to roll up her sleeves. "No, you don't."

Mito looked up, hearing the footsteps in the hallway. A moment later the rice screen door slid to the side and Itama was there, standing in the threshold. He saw the teaser and his eyes widened a fraction before he fumbled with an excuse about not knowing and going when her voice stopped him.

"It's nothing to worry about. I'm done, you're not interrupting anything."

Itama looked to Mito and his eyes narrowed fractionally. "Are you okay?"

The redhead flushed, but didn't flinch like she thought she would. Itama was getting better at noticing things about her. It should stop surprising her when he called her out on things no one else did. He was going to be her husband one day.

"I'm fine, why would you ask such a thing. Get inside and close the door, don't stand there so indecisively forever," she said, waving her hand at the wrist to usher him in.

Itama did as he was told, sliding the door shut behind him before crossing the room and sitting down at her side, across from the empty tea set. He glanced at it only once before pulling Mito into a comforting sort of hug and tucking her under his chin. She let him and he pushed his luck to press a kiss to the crown of her head.

"You seem a bit lost in your thoughts right now. Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked.

"I said I'm fine."

"Mmm, yeah you did, but people can need help while still being fine, can't they?"

Mito grumbled but snuggled her head into the crook of his shoulder and inhaled deeply.

All the Senju boys smelled like wood in one way or another, but to her, Itama smelled like summer on the water. He was sharp to her senses and she loved it. He made her feel safe, which was a new thing to feel. If she had been with any of the other Senju boys her father favored, she doubted she would be this comfortable with them. Itama was stronger than her, but he wasn't a god of the shinobi, he was a healer and he was healing her piece by piece.

"What are you doing here?" she asked after a while.

"I came to see you. Why you have to ask?"

"Why now?"

Itama pulled back a bit to look her over. "Is there something odd about my timing? They said you were free."

"I am. I just finished having tea with your illustrious Sakura sama." Mito turned her face away to look at the teacups and purposefully miss the expressions crossing his face. "She was quite pleasant."

Without words, Itama reached for her hands and stopped her from picking anything up. He held them until she turned and faced him. His eyes were full of knowing and it made her crack a little bit more.

"In this world I have no mother. She died when I was too young to remember her well. Sakura is the closest thing I have to a mother in my life and to Kawarama there is no difference, Sakura is his mother and has been since she saved him from Death."

"I know that," Mito whispered. Her voice was barely there.

"She is a precious person to me, but she is not a woman I am in love with. I love her, but it's not the same thing and it's never going to be the same thing." He smiled and his tone turned lighter. "I'm not my brother. Hashirama is someone you could worry about, but I chose to ignore him for the most part."

"She's fantastic."

Itama stilled and stayed quiet, listening to her.

Mito licked her lips and went on. "She's like a mountain, I don't think I could possible move her in anything, but she's still just a flesh and bone body with feelings that can get hurt too. It's not fair. If you feel hurt like that how can you be so…so strong and admirable? She was even kind to me."

Itama grinned and reached to kiss her knuckles in comfort. "That sounds like her. She doesn't look it, but she's pretty old and like a grandma on the inside. Oh, don't tell her I said that, she might get offended."

Mito chuckled. "I think she'd find it funny."

"I love you, you know that, right?"

She stilled, hearing his words. Her heart swelled her chest and she wanted to try and escape from what she thought was a powerful genjutsu, but at the same time there was nothing she wanted to hear more than exactly what she was hearing right now. Mito wanted to stay in her beautiful dream, not matter how real or unreal it was.

"I love you too, Itama." Her hands shook but he still held them. "I'll love you forever and never stop loving you. That's a promise."

Tobirama brought her the bowls of water when she asks for them, and sat patiently at the back of the room with his legs folded under him; his palms rested atop his thighs. He didn't move to a seat more comfortable for the duration of the hour Sakura worked on the cut, drawing out purple toxins in globs of liquid.

When the hour was over and she was done, that is when he finally stirs. Sakura let him approach but doesn't leave the side of Butsuma while Tobirama looks on. It is minor, but already there is a change in the color of his skin and and the lines of stress on his face.

"When will he wake?" the second eldest son asked Sakura.

Sakura moved to take the dirty water and carry it out on her hip to toss onto the soil outside. "That is not something I can tell you with any level of certainty. He might not wake for days or hours. He might not wake at all. No one could predict such a thing, but I'll say that I feel it will be soon. He has a strong spirit."

"He's my father," Tobirama replied, as if that would explain everything. "He is a Senju."

Sakura spoke enough Senju to know what he meant. "I think he'll wake soon. I won't stray far and I'll be here when he wakes. You may be a bit disturbed so don't feel you have to force yourself to be here."

His expression was a mess that didn't know how to organize itself. Tobirama was a man who was used to being in control of his feelings and hiding them. It was rare for him to look so vulnerable and transparent. He was torn between heart and duty and Sakura could see him suffering from the guilt of his struggles. It was so rare to see, that Sakura actually passed on the threshold and stared for a while.

Tobirama sat in the seat beside the bed and buried his face in his hands. Sakura peeled her eyes away and hurried to dump the bad water. She lingered outside, waiting to give the second elders Senju brother a few more minutes alone with his father and his feelings. She could ask him what he planned to do next when he was a bit more put together. Her questions could wait.

Butsuma wasn't in any danger. Tobirama had plenty of chances to do something with his father as feeble and weak as he was. The toxins he had used on his father had been more to keep his father in a comatose state and less to hurt or harm the old man. All other signs told Sakura Butsuma had been taken care of and cleaned well for the months and years he was asleep in his bed.

It made her think of the old years, when they were all kids and Butsuma was offering them up to Sakura so easily. Tobirama hadn't wanted to leave his family and clan to live in the garden. He was the only one who seemed to love his father so dearly, or at least respect the older clan head.

Tobirama had always been the hardest one to figure out for Sakura, and also the furthest from her emotionally. The connections she had with his brothers were all stronger, leaving her a little lost on how to treat him now. He wasn't a boy anymore, he was a man as old as she was when she first traveled across the universes and worlds. Sakura still felt seventeen on the inside most days, which was his age now….or was he still sixteen? When was his birthday again? It was hard to tell when he acted like he was thirty.

How far past sixteen had she been when the world ended in a pit dug out by war? Had she been sixteen or seventeen? Suddenly it was blurry. The details slipped through her fingers like the grains of rice.

With a panic Sakura's mind scrambled back as far as it could for a shred of family, her mother and father, for a shred of her found family, the boys. She could remember them. Ino, Tsunade, the others from her past came back to her in varying levels of detail. But it was almost as if summoning them was the metaphorical lighting of a match to a trail of gasoline. Summoning the memories started to burn those memories, until Sakura was grasping at splotches. She couldn't remember her mother's eye color, or the way her father smelled. Other memories stuck, she didn't think she would ever forget the power of Naruto's smile, but….

Sakura covered her face with her hands, forgetting how they were dirty. She wanted to close herself off in darkness for a moment and remember home. Naruto came easily and she followed him in her memories under the shade of a canopy of green, between the trunks of overgrown, red bark trees.

'I won't forget you,' Sakura mentally promised, standing on the other side of the gate to their village. Her dead boys were on the other side, watching them in their own ways. They were perfect and at place inside the village, even Sasuke for how little he actually lived in it. Somehow her memory felt right when she thought of her boys in their village…a village that didn't exist yet.

That was a problem that Tobirama was working on, wasn't he? Hashirama and Madara were far friendlier in this version of reality. They were younger in this version, but they were already starting to talk about peace and village settlements with real promise. The Senju even had another clan vouching to finance much of it. If things were allowed to continue as they did, then the Village Hidden in the Leaves would rise with a lot less blood in her foundations.

"Hashirama makes a better clan leader…"

Tobirama was no fool. He knew what he was doing and he knew that while his hands were deep in sin, it was the sin with the most fruit. The toxins hadn't been to kill his father, only keep the old man trapped in a comatose state for an indifferent about of time, but one wrong dosage would be enough to slip free that last thin tether to life keeping Butsuma among the living. In addition to that, Sakura wasn't sure that Tobirama was aware of the fact that other complications could come up and lead to a miserable death in bed for his old man. There was plenty of risk that could end with Tobirama being a father killer, or worse, a clan head killer.

Sakura wanted to ask why, but knew better. She may not have known Tobirama as well as she knew Hashirama or the other brothers, but a part of her understood him better. It was the same part of her that was stuck as a sixteen year old shinobi taking orders she didn't like for the sake of a greater good; the good of her village and her village's future.

'You would have done the same thing in his shoes,' a voice spoke.

Sakura wasn't sure if it was her inner or Kaguya. Regardless, it was right. Before she had been the god of the mountain she had been the tool of her village.

But Sakura wasn't Tobirama, she was more than just a another shinobi in the ranks, she was also a medic, and that didn't change with the addition of Kaguya, but made all the change in the world.

Sakura looked up and saw the sky was colored in twilight shades. She had been working on Butsuma for a couple hours and now the day was gone. Hashirama would be coming back with the Uchiha soon. Sakura was looking forward to seeing the Uchiha boys. It had been too long since she woke from that deep sleep. She wanted to see how Madara filled out this time around, and what Izuna would look like as old as he was now. Izuna had reminded her of Sasuke before, so maybe he looked like an older Sasuke.

Sakura ran a hand through her hair, feeling the strands that flew free of her bun in a messy way. She did't look that great, not like how one would expect a priestess or goddess to look, but Sakura didn't care. She turned back towards the house and entered, setting side the old bowl she had just emptied before also reaching to pull up a chair and sit. She leaned back, crossed her arms, and closed her eyes.

"I'm not going to do anything to him now," Tobirama said, eyes closed. His voice was little more than a whisper between the two of them.

"I know you won't."

He lifted his head a fraction. "Why are you staying?"

Sakura yawned once before sinking further into the chair. "You think I need a reason like that to be here? What about you? Don't you feel lonely?"

Tobirama scoffed and looked up with a clear expression of disagreement. "Absolutely not."

Sakura cracked open an eye long enough to see his reaction, but let her lids close a moment later. She shrugged in response to his claim.

"Okay, maybe you don't feel lonely and maybe you don't need someone else in the room with you. But, is it too hard for you to consider the fact that there is someone who cares about you enough to think about staying, or do you not believe in that apart from your brothers?"

Tobirama schooled his expressions back into another perfect mask. "I'd believe you're capable of such kinds for Hashirama or Itama and Kawarama. I haven't forgotten what I was like to you back then."

"You should. I told you to."

"I'm the one that didn't listen, remember?"

She couldn't help but let a smile slip free. "I remember well enough, don't paint yourself the villain so swiftly."

"Those who don't listen to you are villains, then?"

His tone was part teasing and two parts biting. Gone was the mask of indifference he wore so well. In his voice were real feelings raw and bare.

"I didn't mean it like that, but I apologize if that is how it felt to you back then. I hadn't thought of it explicitly until recently, but I probably caused you a lot of worry and anxiety as a child, didn't I. You were wise to trust your gut. I never meant you any harm and never will, but I think there is some truth to your fears that I hadn't been wanting to confess."

He lifted his head incrementally and that was all Sakura got as a sign of encouragement to continue.

"I don't think she's going to hurt me, and I don't think she wants to. For all I know and have seen, all Kaguya wants has nothing to do with world domination and cruelty, but instead has only used her power to benefit me in some way, regardless of if I consent. She's taken over before, but…the results weren't so bad."

"But she can," Tobirama said, baring her teeth almost. "For something as old as she claims to be, what's a decade of acting in the long con?"

"It's a fear I've had long before you, trust me," Sakura sighed, closing her eyes. "I've been crippled with that anxiety; that one day I'll wake up and she'll be in control doing terrible things to me again, or worse, terrible things to others that I'll have to watch and live through."

"And you've not attempted to expel her for the sake of power?"

She couldn't read his tone in that comment, but Sakura opened her eyes and found his before answering.

"Understand this," she said in a soft tone. "I have lost far more to the devil in my bones than you will ever understand. My family, my world, my life were all taken away because of a war she was at the root of. I crawled to her sealed caracas and consumed the acid of her body because I wanted to die, because there was nothing left."

Sakura had admitted all this to herself, but admitting it to Tobirama was a new sort of liberating; like confessing sins, her words seemed to mean something as soon as they left her mouth because he was there to hear them.

"I've lost count of the times she's stopped me from killing myself, so believe me when I say I understand your fears better than anyone else. There is no way out of this bed, so I will lie in it and I will be glad for it because Kawarama is not a corpse There are some things we can not escape, so we find what peace we can and deal with the rest with the strength and resolve we have."

She looked pointedly to the wrinkled old Senju sleeping soundly in the bed. Tobirama followed her gaze and his lips thinned into a long line of pressure before he dipped his eyes again. His hands were clasped tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

"I will not make excuses for myself and I will face the consequences when they come."

Sakura huffed, leaning back into her seat once more, trying to get comfortable. "Sure, if you say so."

His head picked up again and his red eyes were narrowed in her direction. "Don't think I'm only saying this because I'm afraid you would tell the others on me. I'll speak the truth because it's the right thing to do for the clan. Brother is free of blame, he will not have to suffer for this and hopefully it will be enough to maintain the stability."

Sakura knew exactly what he was saying without saying directly. Stability during the storm that was a Uchiha alliance and the founding of a brand new ninja village wasn't something that came without ruffled feathers.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that when Butsuma wakes up."

"Why? Are you going to entice him to peace with what sway you think you may have over him. He's old. He'll have given up on pursuing a wife so young and strong, no matter how real or fake that torch he carried for you was."

"It wasn't real at all," Sakura snorted. "It was playful and political, but that's all beside the point. I don't plan on saying anything to your brothers, so you can feel free to address them with your own confessions, but Butsuma won't be problem."

"You sound so confident."

Sakura closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, finally comfortable in her seat. "You'll see."

Hours later, after the sun set and the dinner was set out for them to get cold at the door, Butsuma stirred. Sakura was asleep in her seat, eyes shut, posture slack and turned into itself. Tobirama stood first and was at his father's side in an instant. The lights were low but Tobirama could see well enough with what little was lit for him.

"Oto san?"

The old man in the bed turned towards his son and blinked. His eyes were bleary from sleep and disuse, but they focused well enough after another moment. They were wider and clearer than they had been in years, seemingly lighter.

"Is that me?" Butsuma asked in a voice that was almost childish.

Tobirama stilled at the side of his father. "Father, do you….recognize me?"

The old man blinked some more and reached up with his free hand-the one not trapped in a death grip of Tobirama's own making-to pat his son on the cheek in a cheerful pat. It was soft and affectionate, two things Butsuma had never been.

"Of course I would remember my boy. That's me, Oto san, yes. My boy, look how big you've grown. What a tiny tot, not a tiny tot no more, no." He chuckled in fully belly laughs meant for cute old grandfathers and men lucky enough to live without hard fear.

Tobirama was lost. He looked up over his father to where Sakura sat, still asleep in her seat. "What did you do to him?" Tobirama asked in a tone that wasn't angry but something frantic all the same.

Sakura slept on and he was left without an answer.

"Is that food I smell?" Butsuma asked, wiggling around in his bed. "Oh yes indeed, I think it is. My, I'm terribly starved, my boy. Would you do Oto san a big favor and not let him waste away?Food please."

The request was so innocent and cheerful. Numbly, Tobirama rose to do the bidding of his childlike father, gathering the food left at the door and setting the tray down where Butsuma could reach for it. The old man's motor skills left some to be desired, and Tobirama had to help out, but he didn't mind. Butsuma rambled as he ate, talking about everything and nothing. At one point he paused to gawk curly at the 'pretty girl' in the seat that was sleeping.

"What's her name? What's her name?" Butsuma begged.

"That's Sakura…she a friend of our family. She helped you when she was sick."

Butsuma hummed in appreciation. "What a lovely girl. That was awfully nice of her. You're friends?"

Tobiram felt himself nod, ashamed of how tight his throat felt. "Yeah," he whispered to his father. "We're friends now."

Hashirama returned later that night and as the rest of the boys piled in, no one noticed Sakura slip away, no longer faking sleep. She returned to her bed in the garden and slept, feeling warm in her heart for more than one reason.

She was glad for the Senju and how they had found this happy peace with their childlike father. The toxins in his brain hadn't been completely filtered out, and it was a gamble, but Sakura was glad for her decisions in hindsight.

But that hadn't been the only reason her heart was warm and light. In the morning Hashirama was bringing the Uchiha party to their territory for peace talks. He had mentioned it before becoming wrapped up with their father and it was enough to make Sakura almost jerk to attention and blow her cover.

Tomorrow, Madara and Izuna would be where she could reach them. It was happening, she was finally going to be able to see the rest of her family again. She was going to be able to see Madara and Izuna.

AN: Finally, it's Uchiha time.

I think the next chapter will have a lot of what the brothers have been doing and some of it will be told from the perspective, but also it's the reunion chapter where Sakura sees them both for the first time in years. It feels like forever ago that they had interactions among the three of them. It's been a good chunk of story that they spent away I guess.

Life is busy and that's not new, but here you go. Can't promise I'll update next week, but if not next week then maybe the week after that, or maybe the week after that. I'm trying my best guys, thank you for the encouragement.

Please review and let me know what you thought please!