A/N: Hi… :) I honestly can't thank you enough for your continued support and patience with me. This was a very hefty chapter for me to tackle, which is one of the reasons it took me longer than usual to pull it together. This chapter covers the story's biggest low and guides us straight into TIT's climax. The first half of the chapter may seem different, but it resumes a more typical pace and style halfway through. Anyways, hope you enjoy one of the longest chapters yet!

Song: Unfinished Life – Audiomachine

Disclaimer: All characters belong to the great Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter 36: Into the Light

"Tsunade-sama!" Sakura cried, thrusting open the doors to the Hokage's office and barging straight inside, her reservations over intruding an authority's personal space completely forgotten.

"Yes, Sakura?" was Tsunade's curt answer. She seemed to detect enough urgency in her new apprentice's tone to bite back a typical, offhanded comment. She lowered the papers in her hands and manoeuvered the open flask on her crowded desk out of sight.

Sakura pushed the stray, pinks hairs away from her tear-stained face. She'd been so busy as of late that she hadn't had a chance to cut her hair properly. It had grown slightly past her shoulders. "I had my first rotation in the palliative care unit this morning," she said, her lip trembling.

Tsunade nodded understandingly and beckoned for the girl to take the seat across from her. Sakura obliged and perched on the seat's edge, while clasping her hands against her chest. "A man was diagnosed with a terminal illness a few days ago and… he's… he's not taking it well." She swallowed. "I mean, understandably, because of course he wouldn't… but –"

"What did he do?" Tsunade asked, cutting to the case.

Sakura lowered her eyes and took a shaky breath. "He started screaming at his wife. And at me. He blamed us for not recognizing the symptoms earlier, a-and for not giving him the care he needed…" She felt tears well up in her lower eyelids. She'd only began her apprenticeship under the legendary Tsunade Senju two months prior, and despite her former resolve to devote her life to the medical arts, having a patient chastise her just when her abilities were beginning to blossom had taken a major toll on her confidence.

But to her surprise, and slight embarrassment, Tsunade's painted lips twisted into a smirk. "You haven't encountered many grieving patients yet, I presume?"

Sakura's head snapped up with a tiny rush of stubbornness. "Well, not many up close, but I know all about grief! I've studied it and know the stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and then acceptance. And that's exactly why I'm confused. He's angry. But last week, he was clearly depressed, and going on about how his life wasn't worth living anymore, but it's… it's all out of order! My textbook –"

"There's your issue."

"Huh?"

Tsunade sighed and rested her clasped fingers on her desk. "Your textbook."

Sakura felt her jaw drop. "B-but all of my textbooks say… How…?" she spluttered.

Sensing her pupil's disbelief, Tsunade continued. "Grief is a strange thing in practice. We can speculate about it all we want – try to pick it apart and break it up into stages – but when it comes down to it, the experiences of a grieving person are too complex for that kind of thinking."

Sakura nodded, on high alert. Whenever Tsuande imparted wisdom on her, she was particularly keen to memorize every detail of it.

"Some people skip stages, some people backtrack, and most people never reach the acceptance stage. I mean, think about it. Who says they should? Who says you need to accept a horrible diagnosis? A tragedy? These stages were designed for us to compartmentalize a complex phenomenon that we will never truly understand. A person may learn to live with their grief, yes, but acceptance might not ever come."

"I see," Sakura said quietly. "But why is grief so different for each person?"

Tsunade shrugged. "It's hard to say. I have a theory that grief brings out the realest part of a person – their true self, if you will." She gazed into the distance for a moment before locking eyes with her student once again. "Don't treat this stuff like your textbook tells you to, is all I'm saying. Your fate doesn't have to be accepted. And so long as you're working for me, you mustn't forget that."

"I won't," Sakura replied.

And she never did.

"You're on in two minutes."

Sakura blinked at the unfamiliar face from her seat backstage. She could hear the Third Hokage's voice, amplified by a microphone and sound system, droning on and on behind the black curtains ahead of her.

She nodded to the public relations officer, a slender, dark-haired civilian woman wearing a navy suit and make-up that highlighted her angular features.

"Now, you don't have to smile or anything," the woman reminded gently, while reaching out to smooth down Sakura's hair. A few pink strands had gotten caught in her forehead protector. "And don't take any of their questions."

Sakura didn't respond. She knew she was incapable of doing either.

The public relations officer continued, repeating words Sakura had heard time and time again. "We just need a medical representative to speak to the press. To provide some reassurance after, well…" Her words trailed off as she busied herself adjusting the collar of Sakura's army green Chūnin vest. "And since that other woman refused –"

"Tsunade Senju," Sakura corrected, her voice broken and gruff.

"Right. Tsunade. Since she refused to speak, and you're the next most knowledgeable of the current, er… state of affairs, we thought you'd make a fine substitute."

Sakura stood and moved towards the curtain, growing agitated with the civilian's pointless banter. "I know," she muttered, a little rudely, and shoving her hands in her pockets to conceal their constant, relentless tremble.

Sakura wasn't sure precisely when the war ended, but she imagined it happened some time while she was in the forest.

After ignoring Tsunade's unsettling question about what she was certain had to do with the state of the world in her future life (she must have recognized the time travel scroll after all), and after Tsunade left to rejoin the Third Hokage and Jiraiya's fight against Orochimaru, Sakura addressed the group at large.

"What should we do now?" she asked, and eyeing Karin's withering body apprehensively. If Tsunade couldn't figure out how to help this girl, she doubted she would either.

The others shared her sentiments. "Some of us need to stay with her," Tenten said, biting her lip.

"Shino and I can do it," Kiba interjected, on behalf of himself and his teammate. "And Akamaru can stay on the lookout for a clear path to the hospital." His white dog barked in agreement.

"All right," Shikamaru said, nodding pensively. "Since we don't know how many enemies are out there, let's take advantage of our strength in numbers. The rest of us should move together."

Sakura, Sasuke and Tenten exchanged glances and nodded. "What are we looking for? Battles that we can provide back-up in?" Tenten asked, an anxious edge in her tone.

"Let's target battle aftermaths," Sasuke suggested, his gaze shifting to Sakura, "and search for the wounded and disease victims." The obvious implication that Sakura would use her healing abilities to save them went unspoken.

"Good idea," Sakura said, while adjusting her black gloves.

"Roger that," Pakkun grunted. The small, brown dog stepped ahead of the others. "Follow my lead. I'll sniff out a safe trail."

"Great," Shikamaru said, clapping his hands together dismissively. "Tenten and I will follow. And you two –"

"We'll take up the rear," Sasuke interrupted, nodding curtly and Sakura sensed her teammate shift closer to her.

The four of them set out immediately and Sakura's mood plummeted from bad to worse.

They passed body after body beyond the point of saving – Leaf, Sand, and Sound alike. Though she didn't recognize anyone, Sakura felt utterly helpless. She failed to save people from the very disease designed for her to cure.

They were ambushed only once during their search by a quad of scavenging Sand ninjas who didn't really seem to know who they were fighting for. They attacked in a desperate, uncoordinated frenzy, clearly under the assumption that they'd be killed if they didn't.

Shikamaru, Tenten, Sasuke and Sakura managed to incapacitate them at the expense of a few minor gashes and punctures. With a combination of Shikamaru's strategic abilities, Sasuke's skill with wires and Tenten's impeccable knife-throwing aim, they pinned all four enemies to surrounding trees. Sakura exercised her brute force and served as a decoy while the others executed their plan.

After all, there wasn't much else she could do, now that her weapon holster was in shreds and clean empty.

While Sakura was patching up an injury on Shikamaru's forearm after the battle, and ignoring their defeated opponents' frustrated howls and whimpers, Sasuke tossed a scroll in her direction, which she caught with her free hand. She examined it briefly and recognized it as a sealing scroll, before raising her eyebrows and shooting her teammate a questioning stare.

"If I knew you were out of weapons, I would have given it to you earlier," he said, without detailing what exactly he had presented her with or making eye contact. "Keep it." Sakura shrugged and tucked the scroll away into her medical pouch before turning her attention to the scrape on Tenten's calf.

The remainder of their search was relatively uneventful. And unsuccessful.

They stumbled across two allies (only two out of at least fifty) who Sakura was able to save. Once the blood oxygen-sucking parasites reached the brain, heart, or lungs, Sakura knew remedial efforts were futile. She could sense the others' restlessness as they watched her slide her glowing hands along diseased body after diseased body, and then close her eyes and shake her head dismissively.

The landscape became notably more demolished with each cluster of trees they passed. Craters and freshly uprooted greenery spotted the terrain, and the scent of smoke and dust grew more potent. I wonder what caused this? Sakura thought uncertainly, while she leaped over tree trunks that had been snapped clean in half. There was an uncomfortable tinge in her gut.

"Wait!" Pakkun spontaneously cried amidst their search. "Everyone get down!" he hissed, while diving into the bushes just ahead of them.

The others followed suit without question, and coiled their bodies as best they could to fit into the scratchy, tangle of pine. Sasuke's eyes bled crimson and he remained a head above the others to keep watch.

Raised voices and rough smacking and scuffling sounds became audible. Someone was getting man-handled.

"Sand ninjas," Sasuke breathed.

"Versus Konoha ninjas?" Sakura whispered back, and crouching into a more offensive stance.

But Sasuke shook his head, and the other three directed their curious gazes towards him. "Versus Gaara," he said.

"What?" Sakura gasped, while daringly stealing a glance at the scene. And, sure enough, Gaara was there and being restrained by members of his own village. He was suffering from numerous gruesome injuries – there was blood streaming down his face, the skin on his right arm was singed black, and his legs were barely stable enough to support his weight.

Sakura fought her instincts to race towards him and offer her support. Gaara was an enemy in this world. And the Sand ninjas weren't hurting him – just dragging him away…

"I think they're retreating," Shikamaru said and exchanging looks with the others.

Sasuke nodded. "Maybe it's over."

The worst part of the war was what came after it: finding out how the others fared.

In the end, the Sand Village caught onto Sound's merciless plan to spread the disease as far and widely as possible… and at the expense of its allies. This is what created the confusion over who was fighting who, and, ultimately, was what ended the war. Sand's betrayal of Sound weakened the attackers enough to drive them out of Konoha.

But, naturally, the enemies were not driven out soon enough and so Konoha, and many of Sakura's close comrades, suffered immense casualties.

Sakura was already aware of Hayate, the Kazekage, and Kankuro's deaths by the hand of Orochimaru's gruesome disease, but she was devastated to discover that Haku, who had still been unconscious after his Third Exam match against Naruto, was caught up in the fray. His body was found in the arena and shipped to Kirigakure for a proper burial.

Kabuto's body, on the other hand, vanished entirely and whether or not he survived Sakura's maneuver during their match, or survived the chaos brought on by the ensuing fighting in the arena, was unknown.

Thankfully, Hinata survived Gaara's attack and the severe hemorrhage in her leg. But the bad news was her young ninja career didn't. The bones in her leg had been completely shattered by Gaara's sand and she had years of rehabilitation ahead of her before she might even consider any strenuous physical activity again. Another brutal casualty was experienced by Neji, who was injured after his fight against Sasuke, and who may have lowered his guard in his desperate scramble after his cousin was attacked. Sakura still wasn't sure quite how it happened, but there was a terrible slash across his eyes and at least one of his Byakugan was damaged. Maybe indefinitely.

In a similar vein, both Konoha and the Land of Waves lost civilians. A lot of them. And to make matters worse, at one point (while Konoha's troops were occupied in the area and surrounding forest), the hospital was attacked. Many of the wounded, diseased, long-term care patients, and medical personnel were killed, rendering them short-staffed, and the damage to the hospital infrastructure would take months to repair. As a result, numerous civilians died of their injuries and disease contractions due to lack of care.

Sakura's mother, who was undoubtedly a target from the outset, was one of the lucky ones.

Their home was broken into by a squadron of Sand ninjas near the start of the ambush, and with Sakura's father trapped in a lock-down at his office, and Sakura being at the arena, her mother had been alone there at the time.

Mebuki was trampled and concussed, and woke up with a broken neck and shoulder but ultimately, the injuries were what kept her alive. The intruders mistook her paralyzed body as dead and left her there, and though her mother would forever be traumatized and paralyzed from the waist down (and never walk again), Sakura was gracious it hadn't been Sound ninjas with their disease-laced black senbon who invaded her home. Then it would have been a whole other story.

A short investigation after the war unveiled that Sakura had been right all along that Orochimaru's disease not only had physical components, but also attacked the mind via genjutsu. Immediately upon infection, a genjutsu numbed the body so that victims only felt symptoms once the disease had spread substantially through the bloodstream. And that explained why Ino only noticed any symptoms two days after she felt a sting in her calf (caused by a black senbon in the Forest of Death). It wasn't that the symptoms weren't there – it was that her mind had been tricked into ignoring them.

As a result of the outbreak, the researchers at hospital (or what was left of it) had copious samples to investigate the disease's microbial underpinnings (and work towards developing a proper antidote). But all of this to say, there were still some unusual disease cases.

Karin was trapped in a state of limbo, with the disease's promise of death on one end, and her body's unusual regenerative properties on the other. The two were in constant conflict and her body was rejecting all forms of medical intervention. Both Sakura and Tsunade had tried to help her and came to the regrettable conclusion that they had no choice but to wait, monitor her, and hope her healing abilities gained an edge over time.

But the most unusual case of all was Naruto.

He was infected during his fight against Gaara, the battle which most of the forest's utter demolition was attributable to. Sakura could only imagine that Gaara drew from the power of the one-tailed beast trapped inside him, and that Naruto might have summoned the giant toad, Gamabunta, like he did in her old life, but she couldn't be sure.

Similarly to Karin, Naruto's inherent healing abilities, courtesy of the beast inside him, kept him alive, but barely. His body had been weakened so severely by the time it was found in the forest that it was struggling to serve as a vessel for the Fox.

His body was expending intermittent blasts of the Fox's chakra which had torn apart three separate hospital rooms. And Sakura, who had seen Naruto lose himself to the demon inside him numerous times in both of her lives, had never witnessed anything quite like this.

"I wonder if something happened to the Fox," Tsunade speculated with frustration. "If… somehow, the disease is powerful enough to effect it in some way. To spur this rampage."

Sakura couldn't venture a guess. Either way, the disease was not interacting well with the Fox's chakra, and now Naruto was quarantined and under the full-time care of Sakura's mentor herself.

So. What now?

Well, in terms of Konoha's international relations, and although the ties between them were frail, word had it the Third Hokage was plotting something to rekindle some kind of relationship with Sand.

Yes, this time around, the Third Hokage was still alive. And considering how he was capable of backing elaborate, brutal schemes like the Uchiha massacre, Sakura wasn't so sure his survival was a good thing. She wondered if he might try to team up with Sand and go after Sound for this. For some reason, she couldn't put such vengeful plots past him.

And as for Sakura? She spent the following weeks attending press conferences in her new Chūnin vest (which covered the nasty scar on her back and abdomen from Kabuto's impaling), dodging journalists, hiding the post-traumatic tremble in her hands, and wishing that she could find it in her to give a shit about her hospital promotion.

She didn't like going home, where she was starkly reminded of her mother's absence. She was afraid to go anywhere that reminded her of Team Seven, including Sasuke's place, because not only Naruto's absence but the guilt over not finding his body in the forest sooner was driving her utterly mad.

So she spent her days doing whatever she could at the hospital, and her evenings alone with her grief or following her father around – back to the hospital to visit her mother, or home to cook for him. This routine felt dutiful though it didn't quite numb her self-loathing.

The worst outcomes of this war were the mental ones, especially the undeniable fact that, no matter how she spun it...

...he won.

As if some sick, twisted deity wanted to rub everything in her face, Sakura paid a fleeting visit to the future two weeks after the end of the war.

She had been sitting in one of the hospital's empty conference rooms surrounded by a stack of medical textbooks that she had been haphazardly trying to study from, when she felt a familiar pulse rocket up her spine and spin her world out of focus.

Shit, she thought, while clutching onto the conference room table and bracing herself for a submergence into a new dimension.

A blink later, Sakura was standing in an empty civilian office, facing a large window, in her older body. It was pitch black outside and she was flush against the locked door behind her.

She sucked in a deep breath and straightened up. All right. What was going on in this life again?

Bang. Bang. BANG.

Oh yeah. Sasuke was murderously pursuing her and slamming office doors open, one by one. He was getting awfully close now so Sakura needed to act fast.

Ugh. What an inconvenience, she thought as she brought her arms up to her face and made a break for the window. If she was going to face off with Sasuke, starting from inside this tiny, barren office would be pretty disadvantageous.

Sakura crashed through the window and soared through the cool, night air, down a few storeys, and summersaulted to brace her landing (though she also pumped soothing chakra to her joints to prevent injuries). In the distance, somewhere, Sakura felt traces of Tsunade's and Naruto's chakras drawing nearer.

She landed and the world around her vanished.

And then she was back in the conference room.

Her head slammed into the textbook-covered table in her brief, befuddled frenzy. "Ow," she groaned, while sitting back up and massaging her temples. Well. Thankfully that didn't last too long, she thought. Sakura was anything but in the mood for a fight with Sasuke's older (and raging) self at the moment.

Thankfully, with the help of her Strength of a Hundred seal, her ventures across time dimensions weren't quite as debilitating anymore, but they still did take a toll on her body. Her head was spinning and her chest was tight. No matter how large a ninja's chakra reserves were, having a massive amount drained in a short time span (and in this case, in virtually no time span), was distracting and annoying.

Sakura got to her feet. Enough was enough. If her body was hurled to the future at a time she was already low on chakra, her life was still at risk. Even her seal had its limits.

It was time to get the scroll mended once and for all. And Sakura finally knew just who to go to.

"You aren't wearing your Chūnin vest," was Tsunade's flippant remark when Sakura barged straight into the small flat the woman was lounging in. Sakura hadn't the slightest idea whose flat this was, but she'd detected her mentor's chakra here so she made a beeline for it. The woman must be taking a break from looking after Naruto and was sitting in an armchair and reading a book, which she didn't divert her attention from when Sakura walked in. She seemed unsurprised by the intrusion.

"Is anyone else here?" Sakura deadpanned, and peering around with narrowed eyes.

"No. Relax," Tsunade said and nodding towards the shabby, green couch across from her.

"Who lives here?" Sakura asked while approaching hesitantly. She needed her mentor to take her seriously. And what she was about to say could not be overheard.

Tsunade finally looked up. "No one," she said. "This is where I'm crashing until I feel like leaving Leaf again."

Sakura nodded. That seemed believable enough. After all, Tsunade must have been staying somewhere over the last couple of months. And, now that she thought about it, the décor really suited the woman. Empty alcohol bottles lined the windowsill like ornaments.

Tsunade closed her book when Sakura settled down onto the couch. "Shoot, kid." She blew a stray strand of her blonde hair out of her face, adjusted her plunging neckline and straightened up in her seat. Sakura knew she had the woman's attention.

She reached into a zippered pocket on the inside of her grey jacket and pulled out a small strip of fabric. She undid the transformation jutsu and held out the time travel scroll to her mentor, her hand's tremor as prominent as ever. And it felt like an out-of-body experience when the words "Can you fix this?" tumbled out.

Tsunade cocked one of her blonde, arched eyebrows as she reached out and took the scroll. "A rip," she remarked while carefully rotating the scroll in her hand, clearly recognizing what it was, as Sakura suspected she would. She pursed her lips. "Who gave you this?"

"You did," Sakura answered, laying everything out on the table.

"I see." There was a brief pause while Tsunade turned the scroll over once more, examining it carefully. "Must be pretty bad over there, huh?" she asked and meeting Sakura's eye, returning to the question Sakura refused to answer in the forest. But now Sakura had no reservations

"Yeah. The village is under attack," she said. Tsunade raised her eyebrows as a subtle prompt to elaborate. "Orochimaru is behind it."

Tsunade nodded. "All right," she said. "I won't ask for too many details because nothing good can come from meddling. So why does this need fixing?"

Sakura sucked in a breath. Here we go… "I think it was torn by accident. And ever since then I've been… The scroll has been getting weaker. And so have I. I've been going back and forth between both of my lives." She paused to take a breath. "But since I unlocked my seal, it hasn't been as bad as it used to be," she added and thumbing her forehead.

"But it's still dangerous," Tsunade interjected, and watching Sakura with alarm. Sakura's heart fluttered over how invested in the predicament her mentor seemed. "This scroll was not designed to sustain frequent trips between worlds. And neither was your body."

Sakura nodded and felt moisture accumulate in her lower eyelids. Tsunade was right. "And it's hard to focus. I'm in the middle of a fight there, and with all this back-and-forth, I keep getting distracted. I'm scared I'll get pulled away at the wrong second and get myself killed."

Tsunade sighed and got up to her feet. She paced towards the bay window behind her and gazed out at the bustling streets below while running her thumb and forefinger along the length of her chin. Sakura waited patiently for her mentor to sort out her thoughts because God knew she was beyond hope of sorting out her own.

After a long pause, Tsunade finally spoke. "I'll be upfront about this," she said. "I'm not going to try repairing the scroll." Sakura's breath caught in her throat and she brought her hands to her stomach. "Tampering with it could kill you. You were injected with a liquid of some kind before you travelled back in time, correct?"

"Yes," Sakura answered automatically, her heart sinking and a bout of nausea creeping through her gut. She would have to live like this for the rest of her life then, wasting away from her crippling trips across dimensions, until she died in either of her lives. There was no way she could complete her mission like this.

Maybe she'd just have to come clean about her time travel mission – to impart her knowledge about the Akatsuki on others so they could pursue the names on her hit list on her behalf. And then she would just hide away, conserve her chakra and try to survive until three days before her eighteenth birthday so this life wouldn't disappear.

But how many people in the village would believe her story? Well, probably not many, unless Tsunade vouched for her… But still, maybe she'd better only bring her close friends into this, though she didn't want to put her burdens on their shoulders…

"The liquid was created with fibres of the scroll to physically connect it to its user," Tsunade continued, and Sakura jumped because she hadn't noticed Tsunade move directly in front of her. "And now you've got two options."

"Two options?" Sakura echoed, perplexed, while Tsunade eased herself onto the couch on her left and placed a sturdy hand on her shoulder.

"Option one: I'll have a look at the scroll, do some poking around, and see if there's anything we can do to mend it. But like I said: it's doubtful," Tsunade said bluntly, and Sakura truly appreciated how the woman wasn't beating around the bush.

"And… option two?" Sakura prompted, her heartrate quickening and her eyes darting over her mentor's face.

"We sever your ties to the scroll."

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed in concentration and she could feel her pulse in her throat. Was that really an option? "Do you mean… I die?" she asked honestly.

Tsunade shook her head and frowned. "No, there's another way. I could reverse the process. Redevelop the potion and send you back."

The gears were turning rapidly in Sakura's head. "You mean… this world would disappear," she said in a trance and Tsunade watched her in affirmative silence. "I'd just go back to the future where I started from…," Sakura muttered while turning away to mull it all over.

Why didn't the Tsunade of her old life tell her about this option? Of course she wouldn't, Sakura countered immediately. She wouldn't have wanted me thinking there was an easy way out. She wouldn't have wanted me resorting to this… to giving up…

And it was for good reason Tsunade hadn't mentioned it. This was completely out of the question. She wasn't about to back out of the mission! She'd been around Naruto for long enough to adopt that never give up mantra of his, after all. And the village was in danger there. She was here to prevent its impending destruction.

"Should I work on the potion? I'd need to do some investigating. It might take a few days," asked Tsunade, probably recognizing the resolve that crossed Sakura's features.

"There's no point, but thanks anyways," Sakura answered. Darn. She really got her hopes up for nothing. Of course her only option was to endure and push forward.

Tsunade shrugged. "All right then. We'll consider it an ace up our sleeves."

From there, Tsunade made her way to the hospital to check on Naruto (in other words, to make sure he was still alive and kicking). Sakura's initial plan was to tag along, but as soon as she caught sight of Iruka approaching Naruto's chamber, she came up with some rudimentary excuse, turned on her heel, and left. She was nowhere near an emotional place that could handle witnessing that interaction.

So instead she wandered the sparsely-populated training grounds on the village's outskirts without really thinking of anything or intending to go anywhere in particular. She hugged her grey jacket against herself and padded along the grass in blue sandals, feeling the gentle, summer breeze tugging at her loose, short hair and tingling the exposed skin of her ankles and calves, below where her black cropped pants ended. Eventually, she arrived at the graveyard where Lee, and Leaf citizens killed during the war, were buried.

That was where Sakura chose to spend her afternoon. She sprawled out on the soft, pale grass among the tombstones, laying out her sweater below her like a blanket, revealing her red tank-top beneath, and closed her eyes. Birds chirped softly from the branches of nearby trees and the grass rustled around her.

I need to survive for five more years, Sakura thought. And now, after everything that had taken place in the past several months of her short, new life, that seemed like a daunting task. Orochimaru was onto her. And after her. And he was a person who generally succeeded in getting what he wanted.

She released a slow breath. What a mess this life had become.

That was when she sensed a presence approaching.

It was a non-threatening and familiar presence, and Sakura didn't even need to creak open an eyelid to realize who it was, though she did anyway, just as Sasuke sat himself down on the grass beside her. She caught his eye for a moment from her position on the ground, and noticed his casual attire and lack of head protector, and the unease written all over his face.

"Hey," she said slowly. This would be their first proper interaction since they parted ways after the war. In fact, the last time she'd seen her teammate was at their small, unglamorous Chūnin advancement ceremony in the Hokage's office. Sakura felt her skin prickle and her heart beat a fraction quicker.

"I've been avoiding you," Sasuke answered bluntly and staring determinedly ahead while resting an arm on his bent knee. He was wearing a black t-shirt and grey pants and, like her, didn't bother putting on his Chūnin vest.

"Yeah?" Sakura asked with mild interest and trying to read the emotion behind his frown and furrowed eyebrows (and ignoring his enticing profile and mused hair).

He nodded. "You remind me...," he started but his voice trailed off as his eyes locked on something in the distance.

Of Team Seven. Of how we failed to protect Naruto.

"I get it," Sakura mumbled and propping herself up to a seated position and crossing her legs. "I've been avoiding you too. And Kakashi-sensei. And… everything." He met her gaze and a mutual understanding passed between them. And warmth stirred in Sakura's chest. Maybe grief was easier to deal with when it was with someone else.

A sad smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and she busied herself fiddling with the blades of grass around her. Clutching onto them steadied her hands a little. You see, she would have fixed her hands by now if the cause had been physical. But it wasn't.

"I couldn't care less about advancing to Chūnin," she said with a soft chuckle. And she suspected Sasuke felt the same way, with how he wasn't wearing his vest. Only the two of them were successful in moving up in the ranks of all exam contestants. Shikamaru probably would have too if his match actually happened. And maybe Naruto, if the village liked him more. And Haku, if he survived. "Or my hospital promotion," she added, and it was like a weight was lifting off of her chest as she said these things out loud. She hadn't taken on her new position's regular duties yet, but was promised she would once the post-war clean-up was over. Not that she gave a crap anymore.

Sasuke smirked and shook his head, staring at the ground. "Yeah. And I feel like I don't deserve it."

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "But your fight was amazing."

He just shrugged in response. "And I felt useless during everything that happened after it." Sakura bit her lip and turned away. She knew the feeling. "Healing people… Stopping the disease… There was nothing I could do. I'm trained to kill, not to help," Sasuke mumbled, more to himself than to her.

"And then there's me… Trained to heal but unable to heal," she spat out, while a pained smile danced on her lips. "No matter what I did, it was never enough."

"But when it's life or death, any amount helps," Sasuke added seriously. He shook his head and reached for the pit of his neck. "What if you got the disease? What if you had this curse and needed chakra? I wouldn't have known what to do."

Sakura felt a rush of sympathy. When she was about this age in her old life, before she began her training in the medical arts, she watched her boys get themselves beat up over her and there was never anything she could do about it. She remembered that turmoil like it was yesterday.

"You don't need to be an expert in medical ninjutsu to transfer chakra," she offered. He stirred and caught eyes with her again. "I mean, even if I showed you the most basic routes of transmission, there's no way to guarantee that the receiver would fully accept your chakra, or that you could keep them alive for more than five extra minutes, but like you said… any amount helps, right?"

There was a short, contemplative pause during which a soft gust of wind ruffled the leaves of the nearby trees. Finally, Sasuke quietly said, "Let's train tomorrow morning,"

"Sure," Sakura beamed, her mood lifting ever so slightly. "But I'm clean out of weapons so I'll leave those to –"

"No you aren't," he interrupted.

"I'm –," Sakura started but then she remembered the sealing scroll Sasuke gave her in the forest. "Oh! Maybe you're right." She reached into her new weapon holster to fish it out. "I forgot about this."

Sasuke watched in silence while she performed the hand seals to release the mysterious item, and she emitted a gasp when a humongous wooden figure dropped in her lap. "What…?" she breathed while lifting it up for examination. It didn't take long for her to deduce that it was a bow. Fastened to it was a pouch full of gleaming arrows.

"It's from a weaponry in Takumi Village," Sasuke said while easing himself back onto the grass and clasping his hands behind his head. It might have been a trick of the light but Sakura swore she saw some colour rise in his face.

"Sasuke," she whispered as she caught sight of the tiny red and silver gems twisting along the body and arrow shafts. It reminded her of the time, months ago in their early days training together, when he was coaching her in archery and they got into an argument that ultimately led to her using his own signature word against him (annoying). Sakura bravely looked at him. "What… what did you get me this for?"

"You were mad at me," was his matter-of-fact response and she could tell he was looking anywhere but at her.

"No I wasn't," she snapped, lying through her teeth.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Then why were all the traps in my flat set off and why do I have two bills for door repair?" he shot back.

Touché.

"I'm sorry," Sakura caved, while carefully placing her new weapon down and laying beside him on her sweater.

There are bigger things at stake now, huh? Sakura thought, relieved that they were finally able to put their former quarrel behind them. But now the atmosphere was distinctly more serious.

"I came across my brother in the Land of Rivers."

Sakura just about choked. What?!

"We talked. And what you read in the letter was true," he continued in a hushed tone.

Sakura watched her teammate intently, how his chest was rising and falling with each breath and how he was squinting his dark eyes towards the afternoon sun. He didn't seem like he was in the mood to elaborate. He's definitely not angry with me anymore, she realized, her heart drumming and her mind brimming with questions. Did he fight his brother? Where was Itachi now? Was Sasuke all right?

But the question she chose to ask him was, "What are you going to do now?"

"With my life? I don't know," he answered honestly and releasing a slow breath. Then he smiled and it was a little heartbreaking. "Maybe I'm not chalked up to be an avenger after all."

Sakura shook her head in disbelief, at a loss for words. Sasuke? Not an avenger? What kind of outrageous world did she create?

"What about you?" he asked suddenly, catching Sakura a little off guard.

"I don't know either," she replied automatically. "I'm not sure if completing my mission will be possible."

She sensed Sasuke shift to look at her, and she could imagine the surprise that must be plastered on his face. But she turned her attention elsewhere, to the slightly wilted daffodils lining Lee's grave, and then she closed her eyes.

Sasuke and Sakura agreed to pay Naruto a visit early that evening. Iruka must be gone by now, Sakura thought, a little apprehensively. She couldn't bear to see what grief she caused him – the man who came as close to family as it got for Naruto.

Thankfully, he was no where in sight when they arrived. Instead, they came across Shikamaru who was also on his way to visit their teammate, and when the three of them entered the private chamber, Tsunade was there, sitting at Naruto's bedside and scribbling something onto a clipboard. The room was heavily guarded and visitors were advised to stay a safe distance away from the bed, but Sakura didn't care and Tsunade didn't do anything when she sat right on the edge of it.

It was a tragic sight.

Naruto was wearing a hospital gown and was tucked into the bed's covers with IVs hooked up to his inner elbows and a breathing tube running through his nose. His exposed arms were a dark, sickly grey – like the splotchy marks of the disease had spread right through them – and the rest of his skin was patchy and red. The Fox's chakra had singed off a full layer of his skin, and though Tsunade had undoubtedly soothed the fresh, new skin with ointments and medical chakra, it was sensitive and likely stung.

The guy was probably in pain all over, in fact. Sakura knew he wasn't allowed too many painkillers. His body needs to detect pain so it knows to keep fighting, Tsunade had explained earlier, similarly to how Sakura insisted on Sasuke staying awake after he got cursed in the Forest of Death. It made sense. But it made Naruto's suffering worse.

This was the first time Sakura had seen her dear friend conscious since the war ended. He was staring up at them with bloodshot eyes and dry lips twisted into a grin. Sakura couldn't help but smile back as tears stung in the corners of her eyes.

"How you doing, man?" Shikamaru asked from the foot of the bed, where he took his perch. Sasuke sat by the barred window and rested his chin on his clasped hands.

"Never been better," Naruto croaked with a lopsided smirk that looked like it hurt him. Sakura let out a shaky laugh that came out like a sob, so she kept her mouth shut after that.

Some mild chatter followed, where the boys talked about the better parts of their weeks in attempt to lighten the mood, like the new shuriken throwing technique Sasuke learned and the board game Shikamaru bought that morning. Not long into the chat did Kakashi saunter in with his orange book in hand.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto greeted breathlessly and wincing. His visible thrill over having his entire team together seemed to outweigh the discomfort he felt from speaking.

"Yo," was their teacher's nonchalant response, while he exchanged a nod with Tsunade and smiled beneath his mask. He leaned against the wall near the door and maintained the tension-diffusion conversation by inquiring about everyone's weeks.

Sakura remained on the periphery of the talking which gave her mind more bandwidth to attend to other things, like Tsunade's abrupt silence.

Intrigued, Sakura carefully rose from the bed and tiptoed over to her mentor, as not to pull much attention away from the conversation.

The woman was flipping through what Sakura presumed were recent MRI scans of Naruto's body, specifically, magnetic resonance angiography scans, which are scans that look at blood flow. And at a glance, Sakura could tell that the results weren't promising.

There was hardly any blood flowing through Naruto's extremities as a result of the disease sucking out so much oxygen. It was no wonder his arms were such a lifeless shade – there was hardly any life left in them!

Tsunade met her student's gaze with a piercing stare. "What?" Sakura mouthed, prompting her mentor to share her thoughts, though Sakura wasn't so sure now was a good time to hear them.

Instead of responding, Tsunade reached for her clipboard and scrawled a word on the corner of the page and positioned it so Sakura could see.

Amputation.

Sakura's breath caught in her throat. "No," she audibly gasped, her hands flying to her mouth, and not caring that she was drawing attention to herself. Now? Which limbs? All four of them? Was there no other choice?

Of course there was no other choice. Sakura was no idiot. She just saw the scans.

Her problem wasn't with the amputation itself, which was relatively common practice in her line of work, but rather, the reason Tsunade was proposing it at all. This was the last resort. They needed to cut off the parts of his body that were beyond saving. It was a desperate attempt to mitigate the disease's spread to his vital organs because his body wasn't strong enough to protect them.

And even then, after his limbs were gone, his survival was far from guaranteed. The disease was everywhere and it was hard to anticipate how many more of the Fox's outbursts he could bear.

He doesn't deserve this.

Naruto, the purest, most optimistic and heroic person Sakura had encountered in either of her lives, did not deserve a fate that ended here.

In her future life, Naruto was the hero of the Hidden Leaf village. If he didn't survive this, if his ninja career didn't survive this, what would come of the impending disasters, like when Gaara, as the Fifth Kazekage, was kidnapped? Or when Pain attacked the village?

Sakura's heart began to race as her eyes locked on Naruto's. No. Naruto needed to live or the village was doomed to an even darker, unsalvageable future than that of her other life. Konoha needed Naruto.

So what was Sakura to do?

Could it be… could it be that this had become the nightmare world?

Lee, Hinata, Neji, fragile alliances with Sound and Sand, countless innocent citizens, her mother's critical injuries, and now this…

Could it be…?

Her eyes flitted to her other teammate, the boy she loved with all her heart, who was watching her curiously from his place by the window.

But in this world, Sasuke might be saved.

… whereas in the other, he was completely out of their reach. There was nothing left that might get through to him. The peace of the ninja world was at stake unless he was killed.

Sakura needed to make a choice.

All her life, she had unquestioningly put the boy she loved above all else. But what did the village need? What did the world need?

Next she turned towards Shikamaru, who was observing her with an arched eyebrow. He would know what to do, Sakura thought, reminded of his future self's unrivalled strategic leadership. He knew when to retreat, like when he forfeited his Chūnin Exam match against Temari yet still advanced in rank. He knew when backing out was the wisest choice for the greater good.

And maybe I do too.

Maybe backing out wasn't giving up. The war was just beginning there. And maybe Sasuke was an impossible opponent, but Naruto was coming, and if anyone had a shot at defeating Sasuke, he did. They did.

Sakura met Tsunade's eyes. And felt her resolve.

She got up, without acknowledging any of the surprised stares, paced around the bed, and pulled the door shut with a thunk. A few rapid hand signs later and there was a sound altering genjutsu surrounding the chamber so they would not be overheard. Sasuke and Shikamaru were on their feet an instant later, alarmed.

"Sakura?" Kakashi asked, while stowing his book away in his weapon pouch.

You don't have to do this, a nagging, petrified voice who wanted nothing more than a blissful, ignorant life sounded in her mind. But Sakura would have nothing of it. There was no going back now, and maybe what she was about to do was a bit dramatic, a bit extreme, but something in her conscious knew she needed to come clean.

She faced the room and directed her words at Tsunade, who seemed unfazed by Sakura's actions, because it was easiest. "I'm not who I've been saying I am."

Kakashi folded his arms, Shikamaru stiffened, Naruto looked at her in a trance, and Sasuke peered around, utterly bemused, and probably gauging whether the others' deemed her a threat or if Sakura herself was under a genjutsu.

"I'm not a spy or an enemy," she clarified, and there was a bittersweet mixture of relief over admitting a long-kept secret and guilt over admitting a carefully hidden lie. "But I was sent here for a reason I haven't told any of you about."

Sasuke balled his hands into fists. "You… you lied about your mission?" he growled, eyes narrowing. And Sakura could only imagine how badly Sasuke would take it when he realized that she had betrayed him again, just after they rekindled their relationship. But she couldn't let that deter her.

"I didn't tell you the whole truth," Sakura added while biting her lip and taking a shaky breath. "I'm… I'm not from here."

A pin drop could be heard. No one dared to move, whisper, or even blink, until…

"You're from the future."

I knew it, Sakura thought and she actually smirked when she turned her attention to Shikamaru. I knew he was onto me. Well. That made the revelation a bit easier.

She clenched her jaw, still a little delirious over this entire event's unexpected occurrence, but there was no looking back.

"My name is Sakura Haruno, a Chūnin from Konohagakure. I am seventeen years and three hundred sixty-two days old and was sent here by Tsunade Senju to save Konoha from its impending destruction." The air grew still and no one breathed.

The pause that followed was broken by Kakashi. "What destruction?" he asked.

"The village is under attack in the future," Sakura answered and bravely meeting his gaze, which was more inquisitive than untrusting (like she expected it to be). "Orochimaru is behind it."

"Why were you picked to come here?" was his next question. Shikamaru nodded, equally curious, and Tsunade looked stern, but supportive of Sakura's divulgence. And Sakura had no clue how her teammates were reacting because she couldn't bear to look anywhere near them.

"It's because of my regenerative chakra," she confessed and beckoning towards her forehead seal. "It helped me survive the trip across time dimensions. But there's a breach in the link so I've been going back and forth… And if it weren't for my seal, I'd be dead, but I'm not sure how much more I can withstand." Her voice wavered slightly. "A-and now… because the breach exists, Tsunade-sama can send me back to that world, where there's still time to fix things…" She looked at Tsunade for affirmation and was greeted with a silent one.

"I presume there was a reason I didn't just come here myself," Tsunade probed gently, genuinely curious.

Sakura nodded. "It might have been your age, but also…—" Sakura clenched her fists and felt a tear trickle down her face "— you know – you knew that I'm in love with the person who's about to destroy the village. Orochimaru's apprentice. And because of that, I had an extra incentive to make things right."

Sasuke finally spoke in a hallow tone. "Who is the apprentice?"

Every pair of eyes was on him before the words escaped his lips.

A/N: ... WHEW. That was a challenging chapter! I've been so excited to write that last scene, which I've had in the back of my head for about a year now haha. What did you think? I can't wait to hear your feedback and I'm so excited to get started with the next chapter, which I think you're going to like. :)

Just a gentle reminder that this story is, in fact, working towards a happy ending, but sad things need to happen for the happiness to be more meaningful, right? If you're looking for something lighter and happier to read in the meantime, I invite you to check out Chapter One new short story called Missing Piece, which helped me get back on my feet and nurture my love for creative writing (and SasuSaku). See you soon. :)