A/N: Thanks for the reviews: Duner89, LChan3706, Kihoko-san, ewaa, Badger94, LoonyTuned, When God Abandoned The World, magykalheart, Polar, mshccs, cutehoney4, The Imperfect Me, anon guest, girlpod50000, and OLASZKECSKE. I really do appreciate everyone's feedback. Yep, Madara is going to be mad for a while, and he's not going to take it sitting down. It'll be a turning point for Madara and Sakura, though. Not going to give out spoilers! Especially regarding the romance part. You'll have to wait and see.

I hope I explained Sakura's thoughts and actions well enough this chapter and kept her in character in accordance with the manga. Madara's gunna have a recap chapter soon to explain his actions and thoughts, so don't worry if you can't make sense of his side right now.

After some consideration, I updated the description of the story and removed the 'drabble' label from it. The chapters can't really be considered drabbles, and I'm putting a lot more details into the story and writing more words per chapter than I originally expected I would. Speaking of which, I did try to summarize chunks of the Pein battle here, since we all know what happens, but had to leave enough setup for Madara's comments.

Hope you enjoy the last bit of the Pein arc! Review if you like the chapter please. It would mean a lot. Also, I used a specific suffix for Hinata when another Hyuuga is talking about her. I think I got it right... but if I'm wrong, please let me know and I'll fix it (and the same goes for any spelling and grammar errors. I'll do a re-read tomorrow after sleeping to see if I missed anything. Long chapter is long and I might have slipped up somewhere). Thanks~

Sakura speaking to Madara in her mind.

Madara speaking to Sakura in her mind.

-Invasion: Part III-

As Katsuyu's mini-clones slithered off the surviving shinobi and villagers amid the ruins of the village, Sakura strained her eyes to see what had caused the cloud of smoke, but she couldn't make out anything. The rubble of the hospital was some distance away from the edge of the large crater that had been carved into the center of Konoha. The sheer amount of power that was required to do something like that... to wipe out almost an entire village... was terrifying. Sakura rubbed the tears from her face, the horror inside her slowly turning into numbness. It was so hard to accept the devastation she was seeing... She needed to get a grip and focus. Panic and despair would not be helpful.

"That's..." a male voice spoke on her left. Sakura glanced over and found herself looking at a roughed-up Hyuuga. His Byakugan was trained on the parting cloud of dust in the center of the crater. "It's Naruto!" he gasped.

Naruto! He was here?! Oh god... he was here and Pein had torn apart Konoha looking for him to take the Kyuubi. Her heart clenched and she swallowed heavily, scared for her friend's life. It was only a matter of time until... "All six Peins just arrived... Naruto is going to fight them!" the Hyuuga suddenly exclaimed.

Sakura tensed up and her mind raced. She could not let Pein capture Naruto and take the Kyuubi. She knew that Madara was somehow connected to the Akatsuki after the battle with the masked man, and his ultimate goal was to recombine all nine tailed beasts into the Juubi and become its Jinchuuriki... and that would mean Naruto's death, not to even mention the other consequences... She didn't even want to think about that right now. Sakura grit her teeth. There was absolutely no way she was going to let her friend die as long as she could still breathe.

She started to stand up to go to Naruto's side. Surely she could do something to help... anything at all... but her body froze, snatched from her control. 'I have to help him,' she said, struggling against the Uchiha's iron will, frustration bubbling up as she made no headway.

'No. You're low on chakra and no match for the Rinnegan. I won't have you getting us both killed,' Madara replied in a firm tone, refusing to let her go. The more she fought against him in her mind, the harder he pushed back against her. It was like trying to move a mountain... impossible.

She knew he was right, that going to Naruto would most likely get them both killed, but the thought of doing nothing at all was unacceptable. 'He's my friend...' Sakura pleaded, more in general than to the Uchiha. She hated how weak she felt right now, and she was sure that Madara wanted Naruto to lose and Pein to get the Kyuubi. However... regardless of that... he was right... if she tried to fight, she would die.

'No, Sakura,' he said. It was clear he would not be swayed on the matter. It tore at her. Once again she was left behind and couldn't stand by her teammate's side even after all the effort and time she had put into training. But getting herself killed wouldn't help Naruto at all...

'Bastard,' she hissed, feeling extremely guilty as she accepted control back from Madara and didn't make another move to go to her friend. The Uchiha said nothing, and she felt the majority of his attention shift to Naruto's location while still obviously keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn't try to risk her life... both their lives. Sakura shook her head and pushed aside her feelings of guilt and self-pity. A defeatist attitude was not helpful nor very becoming of a shinobi. Maybe a chance would come where Naruto would need her. She had to be ready to do whatever she could. Whether Madara objected or not was a bridge she'd cross when or if it came to that.

Despite her resolve, there was too much dust and distance to see what was going on in the crater. All she could do right now was have faith in Naruto and be patient. After a minute, she heard a faint sound. Sakura glanced at the Hyuuga. "What's going on? I can't see from here."

A look of awe was on the man's face. "Amazing! He took out one of Pein's bodies with a single blow!" She sucked in a shocked breath. Naruto did that?!

'Heh, not bad for a fool,' Madara hummed, sounding mildly impressed. Of course his praise was topped with an insult, but it was still a compliment.

'His name is Naruto,' Sakura said, a small smile on her face. Maybe Naruto could win! Her friend had a habit of surprising her and overcoming even the worst situations.

The Uchiha scoffed after reading her thoughts. 'Unlikely. He's up against the Rinnegan. Six pairs of them... well, five now.' Her faith wavered for a second after hearing Madara's words, but she doubled down and put her hope in Naruto as the roars of animal summons and combat drifted up from the center of the crater. She wanted her friend to win and prove Madara wrong. Part of her was tempted to argue with the Uchiha in defense of Naruto, however that would distract her and she needed to maintain focus, so she resisted the urge. Actions spoke louder than words, after all.

A heavy thud near her made her jump in surprise, and she turned to see a medium-sized toad summon gently setting down a very familiar blonde woman... "Shishou!" Sakura gasped when she saw the state the Hokage was in. Her teacher looked terrible. Her skin was sunken in and wrinkles lined her face and body. She looked even worse than the age she was supposed to be. Without thinking, Sakura immediately rushed to her side.

Carefully, she picked up her teacher's frail hand and held it, measuring her chakra levels and finding them dangerously low. "It's all right now..." Tsunade panted, but Sakura wasn't convinced. She glanced at her Shishou's forehead and found the purple rhombus missing. The Hokage must have used her Strength of a Hundred Seal to pass her chakra to Katsuyu in order to save as many as she could. Sakura was still working on her own seal. It was a subconscious effort at this point and well worth the chakra she fed it constantly. The downside was that it limited her more than usual and she had to be mindful of that until the rhombus appeared. However, once released, the seal was an amazing battle advantage. If only it didn't take so long to prepare...

Sakura was snapped out of her thoughts when Tsunade passed out and began to tip forward. She caught her teacher and leaned her back, then began to use the small amount of chakra she could spare to stabilize her condition. It was agonizingly slow work. She tried to split her focus between healing the Hokage, monitoring Naruto's fight with Pein as much as she could, and keeping tabs on Madara's attention. The Uchiha seemed to be mostly concerned with how the battle was going and wasn't bothered with her effort to help her teacher. As the minutes passed by, a couple of Tsunade's personal guards arrived, explosions boomed in the crater, and animal summons roared and snarled.

A loud sound echoed from the battle and three large shapes went flying out of the village. Sakura gaped at the sight before realizing that they were huge toad summons. "What the..." she muttered, a concerned frown forming on her face. Was Naruto okay?!

'Shinra Tensei,' Madara's voice explained as the toads disappeared from her range of view. 'It's the same jutsu that he used to destroy Konoha.' Why the Uchiha had decided to be a little bit helpful today with his informative answers, she didn't know. She couldn't complain though.

That technique... Shinra Tensei... was extremely worrying. Sakura turned back to the battle and tried hard to catch sight of Naruto, but she was still too far away to see through the dust clouds hovering in the air and at this point she could not leave Tsunade's side even though she wasn't in a critical condition anymore. The healing glow around her hands vanished after she double-checked the Hokage's status. 'I wish having you sealed in me gave me the Sharingan,' she sighed.

Madara laughed, the sound making Sakura's heart skip a beat despite the horrible situation. 'We're on the same page there.' She quickly locked the memory of her reaction in her mental vault and prayed that he hadn't noticed. Actually... now that she thought about it... he didn't seem to be overly concerned about not being able to see what was going on.

'You think Naruto's going to lose, don't you?' Sakura asked, listening closely for any more sounds of combat. She was still worried about her friend for sure, but as each moment ticked by, her hope and faith grew stronger.

'I don't think, I know,' Madara said with a smirk in his voice. She bit her lip, thinking quickly, then nearly slapped herself when she realized there was something she could do to help Naruto.

Sakura leaned close to the mini-clone of Katsuyu that had protected her during the village's destruction. The slug had remained close by both her and Tsunade afterwards. "The real Pein isn't there. We need to find the real one," she whispered before Madara could object. Katsuyu could communicate with all her bodies and pass information to a large amount of people.

"Shikaku Nara, Shikamaru Nara, and Inoichi Yamanaka have also arrived at that conclusion and are working out how to track the real Pein down," Katsuyu replied, much to Sakura's relief. Thank god someone else had figured it out too, and without a hint from a certain Uchiha. Madara mentally rolled his eyes at her, a clear sign that he was confident in Pein's victory.

She really wanted to prove him wrong... for Naruto to prove him wrong. "Okay good. Let me know if they need my help," she said, then checked on Tsunade again to make sure she was still stable. Her chakra levels remained very low, but she wasn't in danger of dying now. Sakura was worried about the disappearance of her seal. It wasn't supposed to vanish like that.

After a moment, she realized that the sounds of the battle had died down. She turned to the Hyuuga and asked, "What's going on over there?" She noticed he looked tense, a bad sign.

"Pein has Naruto pinned down. It looks like they're talking..." he answered. Sakura stiffened in shock and she felt fear clench her heart.

No way... Come on, Naruto...

'Hn, like I said,' Madara chuckled in her mind. Frustration reared its ugly head again. If she tried to interfere, the Uchiha would stop her, and if she did manage to break through his control... Pein would kill her. So what could she do right now...?

"Hinata-sama just attacked Pein to try and save Naruto!" the Hyuuga cried out, his white eyes wide open as he watched a fight she could not see.

"Hinata did?!" Sakura gasped, beyond surprised at the news, a feeling shared to a lesser degree by Madara, who she could tell was more amused by the development than anything. She knew... she knew Hinata loved Naruto... but there was no way she could stand against Pein. Still... she was selfishly glad that someone had intervened, even if it was dangerous. If she could just manage to free Naruto...

Sakura noticed another burst of dirt rise up from the crater and frowned, praying that Hinata was alright. She glanced at the Hyuuga's face and her worry increased tenfold. He was frozen with a look of despair etched onto his features. "Hey-"

Suddenly, a wave of the most terrible chakra washed over her and a horrifying roar of rage rose from the battlefield. Sakura swallowed hard as she realized what had happened. It was just as terrifying as the last time.

The Hyuuga sounded as scared as she felt. "Pein... he stabbed Hinata-sama... then Naruto, he..." The shinobi trailed off as he lost his voice. Sakura waited with tense breath as he cleared his throat. "I... I don't know what to say... I can see six tails! At this rate, he might fully transform!"

Six... six tails... oh god... last time it had been four...

'Now this fight is getting interesting,' Madara commented, as if this was worthy entertainment for him. If he had his own body right now, he'd probably be grinning. Sakura did not share that sentiment. Not at all.

"Katsuyu, please hurry and tell everyone to get out of here and take shelter," she ordered the slug, trying to think fast. She barely took note of Katsuyu's affirmative reply. In his fox form, Naruto was a danger to everyone around him and couldn't distinguish friend from foe. After getting everyone to shelter, what should her next move be...?

Sakura realized that the roars that had been echoing up from the crater were not nearly as loud. Again, she had to rely on the Hyuuga. "What's going on?"

"Naruto and Pein are getting further away from the village! Pein appears to be running away," he said. The toad summon that had brought Tsunade to her laughed at the news.

"This is no time for laughter!" Sakura scolded. "Now's our chance to get Hinata! And we have to do something about Naruto! He'll attack anyone when he's like this." Unfortunately, the only one who could do anything about Naruto was Yamato-sensei, and he was out of the village on a mission.

Shit.

Even though she had not been able to see most of Naruto's fight, the large blasts of pure energy and light from far beyond the village's walls were obvious to anyone. Bijuu bombs... such great, terrible power...

Sakura did not allow herself to be distracted for more than a few seconds. Now that Naruto and Pein were out of the village, she used the opportunity to get to Hinata, leaving Tsunade in her personal guards' care. Thankfully, Madara was remaining cooperative at the moment and she had no issues reaching the injured girl, arriving shortly after Gai's team. They had been out on a mission. It was pure luck they had returned to Konoha when they did. She did not have time to catch up though. Neji looked really worried about his cousin.

She set to work healing Hinata's wounds. After removing the black rod from her abdomen, Sakura assessed the damage and found that several of her organs had been pierced. The injury was not immediately fatal, but it would kill her if left alone. Fixing soft tissue was always slow work and she was seriously low on chakra, which meant it would take even longer to heal the stab wound as she let her natural reserves replenish.

Sakura was so focused on Hinata that she lost track of time until Madara's voice interrupted her thoughts. 'The Kyuubi's chakra is gone...'

'Eh?' Sakura cast her senses outwards and realized he was right. Wait... what did that mean? Had... had Naruto been defeated...?

"Naruto suppressed the Kyuubi by himself. Now he's facing off with Pein one last time," one of Katsuyu's mini-clones said. A surprised and pleased grin spread across Sakura's face. Naruto! He could really do it! He could win!

'Useless brat,' Madara growled, frustration and anger lacing his tone. Sakura was confused about his remark. It didn't make sense applying it to her or Naruto... so maybe Pein? Hopefully the Uchiha didn't try to take control of her and...

It didn't matter. Naruto was winning, and she trusted him. Pushing aside all worries, including her concern about what Madara might do, Sakura refocused on Hinata and continued to heal the damaged organs. She vaguely registered the conversations going on around her. Gai wanted to go support Naruto. Katsuyu advised against it. Naruto had a plan.

As Sakura finished the last bit of work on Hinata, Katsuyu announced the most amazing news. "Naruto has defeated the sixth Pein."

Immediately Gai's team and the scattered Konoha shinobi that had gathered around while she healed Hinata burst into relieved and energetic conversation that was far too cluttered to even try to follow. She shared their joy though. Naruto had won! He had saved them all and saved himself! He was okay. He wasn't going to die. Her heart felt so much lighter and she grinned with happiness.

Madara, on the other hand...

Sakura's smile slowly slipped from her face. The Uchiha had become dangerously quiet. She couldn't read his carefully guarded emotions at all. It... it was actually making her really nervous. She had never seen him like this. She was afraid to say anything to him, let alone try to gloat.

She carefully kept her thoughts as blank as possible, worried that she might accidentally set him off. He could easily take over her body and attack and kill her friends and everyone around her. He had promised way back at the beginning not to do that, but his silence was very unnerving. She didn't dare risk it.

Time seemed to stretch on forever. When Katsuyu said that Naruto was going to confront the real Pein, Sakura tensed up when she felt an unreadable shift from Madara. While the slug explained that Naruto didn't want any help, Sakura held her breath, completely on guard and focused on the Uchiha in her mind. It was hard for her to pay much attention to anything else. She didn't know what he was thinking... if it bothered him that she was monitoring him or not... he was completely silent and unresponsive. Her joy from Naruto's victory had totally faded away.

Seconds felt like hours as the conversations resumed. Hinata eventually woke up and asked what was going on. She was thankful that Naruto was okay. Gai kept arguing about going to help Naruto. Katsuyu's replies were always that Naruto was talking to the real Pein. Sakura wondered if the feed of information from the slug was keeping Madara from lashing out or not. She just didn't know... and it scared her. She was incredibly worried for the lives of everyone in the immediate area, and she was actually concerned about Madara too. It bothered her to see him like this...

A strange feeling tickled the edge of her sense. She couldn't put her finger on it... and as soon as it appeared, it was gone. Sakura glanced around, her confusion turning into mind blowing shock as people that were dead began to sit up.

She only had a few seconds to marvel over it before a tidal wave of fury and rage erupted from Madara, crippling her with the sheer intensity of it and quickly overwhelming her mind.

Next Chapter: Sakura figures out a bit of crucial information and is forced to make a hard decision. Madara is still not happy at all. Naruto is surprisingly helpful.