There were so many people. Too many had gathered to see them off. Sakura groaned loudly from her place next to Madara. He took her hand and pulled it through and over his arm, placing his other hand on top of hers, closing any gap that had previously dared come between them. He smiled as he felt her relax into his side, willingly accepting his silent support.
The Uchiha, along with Sakura, had arrived early that morning just before day break. The Senju guards at the gates of the compound merely nodded to them as they entered, a team of four shinobi appeared at their sides and escorted them to the main house, where they were welcomed by both Tobirama and Hashirama themselves. Kanta was nowhere to be seen.
Hashirama led them into a large hall of a room, long and rectangular, a large meeting table in the center, lined with chairs. He motioned for them to sit as they liked. Madara chose one end, and sat alone as the Uchiha clan head, Izuna to his right and Sakura to his left. Yagami had come with them, much to Sakura's surprise as well as another elder, whom she recognized from the day before but had yet to be introduced to. Tea was served, then the Senju had started to arrive, by ones and twos until the room had been filled, every seat taken, some stood up, backs against the walls, but none stood behind the sitting Uchiha and their pink haired friend.
Sakura nodded to some of the Senju she had recognized from her previous time at the compound, Toka was one of them, sitting close to Hashirama at the other end of the table. Toka's eyes kept flickering from Sakura to Madara as if confused but determined to look as though she weren't. Tobirama however, refused to even look in Sakura's direction, much less acknowledge her presence, it pained her, but there was nothing she could do about it in present company.
After everyone had drank their tea and small pleasantries were made, Hashirama stood and cleared his throat.
"As many of you know, and as some of you may have guessed, we are gathered here today because a great wrong has been done to one of our friends, one of our mutual friends." Hashirama's voice was loud, strong and it projected itself into every ear, every mind at the table, he had their undivided attention.
"Lady Haruno Sakura, the Kunoichi you see before you, " He gestured to where Sakura sat beside Madara. " Was insulted by one of our own, Senju Kanta."
For the Senju who had no idea why they had been called there, a gross whisper filled the room, like angry or confused bees. Many looks of curiosity were cast Sakura's way, but few, to her great relief, were hostile.
"Kanta, whom my brother and I sent to protect Lady Sakura in her travels to find her home and the goddess who sent her to us, betrayed her friendship and guardianship by insinuating she was a woman of loose character. He made incorrect and dire assumptions, acted on emotion and lashed out at her...publicly." Hashirama said looking around the room, meeting every eye.
Hashirama's gaze landed on Madara's, Madara looked back at his old friend. Sakura watched, something had passed between them, something unsaid.
Hashirama cleared his throat once more. Sakura placed her hands on her lap under the table and twisted her fingers together, this was much more intense than she had anticipated and hoped the spar would start soon, she needed to get some of her energy out.
"As many of you know Lady Sakura not only healed and saved the life of Toka but she has healed many of the Uchiha as well. After the altercation between Tobirama and a small team of Uchiha, Sakura traveled to our compound to check on my brother, to see if he was in need of her healing assistance, and with her, came an Uchiha, who was both respectful and polite to our guards, who were less than respectful or polite to him. Such actions look poorly on us all as a clan." Hashirama said looking around the room.
"Yes, we are at war, but we are both noble clans are we not? Such actions are below us." Hashirama looked to Sakura.
"Lady Sakura, with your permission, I would like to explain your presence here." Hashirama asked her.
Sakura could feel Izuna stiffen in his seat beside Madara, his tension was palatable.
Sakura inclined her head to Hashirama. Did they not know why she was here? Hadn't he just told them?
"Lady Sakura comes to us, from the future. She has seen our future and it is bleak, dismal, our two great clans are almost no more." Hashirama's statement carried all the weight he could have hoped for.
The room went silent. The two Uchiha elder's eyes bugged out of their heads as they looked from her to Madara, as if hoping one or both of them would call out, "Liar.", but they didn't. Both Madara and Sakura looked straight ahead, at Hashirama.
"What is this?" One of the Senju elders rose in their seat and spoke out. "What nonsense is this Hashirama?"
"Not nonsense. The truth. In Sakura's time, there is one Senju and one Uchiha left, her world is at war, all of the five great nations against a goddess, our clans are no more." Hashirama said ignoring the outbursts that had erupted around the room.
Sakura felt the eyes on her, felt like the walls were closing in on her. Madara felt for her hand in her lap and held it tight, reassuring her. She looked up at him gratefully, her breathing calming, her eyes refocusing.
"Proof." The Senju were demanding.
"Of course." Hashirama said calmly, waving his hand at the door.
The guard opened the door and Senju Kanta entered. He walked over to Sakura where she sat beside Madara and kneeled to the ground, his head touching the floor.
"Forgive me Lady, I spoke out of anger and jealousy." He said quietly, so quietly she almost didn't hear him.
Sakura looked down at the man she had called friend not less than twenty fours hours ago. She looked around the room. Her eyes met the clear, focused eyes of Hashirama...ah...you clever fool, so much like her Naruto, she could have laughed, and would have if the tension in the room wasn't as suffocating as it was.
Sakura stood from her chair, dropped down to crouch next to Kanta. "Did you mean it, do you really think I'm a whore Kanta?" She asked him quietly, for only him to hear.
"Of Course not my lady, I am sorry. I...was jealous." He glanced up at her then looked back down at the floor.
Sakura sighed, idiot. "This could have gone a lot worse I suppose. Get up ass." She stuck her hand out to her friend and he slowly put his hand in hers.
Madara watched the man with narrowed eyes.
"They want proof, tell them, tell them what you saw and what you heard." She said loud enough for the room to hear.
...and he did. Kanta told them about how they had called out the goddess at the top of the mountain, how Sakura had amazed and frightened him by her ferocity, with her fearlessness, a woman who didn't even fear the goddess she had hunted down. He told them, how her war was still waging, how the goddess told her she couldn't send her back, that the jutsu hadn't been meant for her, how Sakura had jumped in front of the jutsu, pushed her friend out of the way, how her story had been confirmed by the goddess herself. Kanta ended by telling everyone in the room about the god tree, and how Kaguya had told her to find it and destroy it when Sakura had begged her to spare her friends, how it had been too late and that the only way to save her world, both of their worlds, was for Sakura to find the god tree and destroy it...
The room was quiet again.
"Why you girl?" An old Senju with white hair down his back asked Sakura.
"Because I was the only one ripped from my reality to come here, to be a part of yours." She told him.
"The Senju, they are...are they, we really, are no more in your time?" A man asked from the Senju side of the room.
"My Shisou, Tsunade Senju, the leader of my village, your future village, was the last Senju." Sakura said.
Jaws dropped, whispers began anew.
"And the Uchiha? Lady Sakura?" Yagami asked her, honoring her with a title.
"One, Sasuke Uchiha, one of my best friends, and teammate, he is the last of your clan, and is most likely dead, unless I can find the god tree." She said, willing the tears back.
"I don't believe it." A Senju said angrily, "You lie, girl. You are clearly with the Uchiha..." He didn't get to finish.
"Did you not hear? Her master was the Leader of her village, a Senju, she was her apprentice, her friend and teammate was an Uchiha. She is the bridge between our clans!" The nameless Senju said loudly, looking around him. "Even now, she is a healer to both, yet you accuse her still? Did you not see, she forgave Kanta, she saved Toka's life, she is...different from us, almost better than us, are you not ashamed?" He said passionately.
Sakura was touched, she hadn't expected this, any of this. She didn't know what to say.
Madara stood at his end of the table. All whispering, all talk immediately stopped. All heads turned to look at the long haired, dark eyed Uchiha. Power radiated from him. His eyes met Hashirama's and he spoke to him, as though he were the only one in the room with him.
"Remember when we were younger, old friend?" Madara began.
Several gasps could be heard but no one interrupted the Uchiha clan head as he continued.
"We would meet by the river, train together, play like the young children we were, no clan, no war...no blood." Madara's voice grew soft.
"I do." Hashirama smiled, his eyes resting on his old friend.
"I remember the first time we met, you were a boy, just like me, we didn't need to know our clan names, we didn't care, it didn't matter to us." Hashirama took up the story.
Madara nodded and smiled a sweet smile of his own eliciting more gasps from the room.
"Your hair, you looked so stupid with that bowl hair cut of yours, kami it was a good thing we met by the river, anywhere else wold have been embarassing for me to be seen with you." Madara laughed.
"My hair!" Hashirama grinned at his friend, like old times, "You looked like you had never heard of a brush, or a bath, your hair stuck out then like it does now!' Hashirama laughed with his friend, the room was stunned into silence.
"Oh? What's wrong with my hair?" Madara didn't dare look at Sakura, he could feel her gaze and his mouth twitched.
"Well, you, you look like a spiky haired, um..." Hashirama trailed off.
"Spiky haired weirdo?" Sakura offered grinning madly at Madara who was trying to hold his laughter in.
"Yes!'' Exploded Hashirama, "That's it! You looked like a spiky haired weirdo, even when we were kids Madara!" Hashirama made his way around the table and patted Sakura on the shoulder, extended his hand to his old friend, and Madara took it.
"Do you remember our...dream?" Hashirama said.
"I do." Madara said softly, "It seems like so long ago."
"It doesn't have to be." Hashirama looked down at Sakura, "I think we already knew, didn't we?"
Madara looked down at Sakura as well, "Yes, I suppose we did." They shook hands.
"Enough is enough, I'm tired of this war, the killing." Hashirama turned to the room.
Several nods met with his approval, some frowned, but only one was clearly opposed, he rose from his chair, it fell back in his haste and toppled over, laying on it's side as he stormed out of the room.
"It is to be expected." Madara said after the man had left, his own gaze falling to that of his brother...who was glaring openly at Tobirama. Madara sighed.
"So, that's it?" Yagami said incredulously, "The war is over just like that?"
"It appears so." Sakura smiled at the elder and rose to hug Hashirama, then Madara, and finally Kanta.
"Thank you Kanta." Sakura smiled at her friend, friends once again.
"I'm sorry Sakura." Kanta still felt guilty, he had never meant what he had said, he had regretted it the moment he had slammed the door shut and left her home.
"It's in the past." Sakura said.
He nodded. "Now what?" He looked around the room, people were crowded around one another talking in small hushed groups.
The Uchiha remained largely alone at their end of the room, looking around at the meandering Senju with interest and for Izuna's part, animosity. Sakura really hoped he could get over his hatred for the Senju, she hadn't recalled Izuna in her history books, and now she knew why...he hadn't made it to the founding, he had either left before the village had been established, or he had died. She watched Izuna watch Tobirama. She watched the hatred in Tobirama's eyes as he looked at Izuna. Izuna would never abandon his clan, his brother.
Sakura turned her attention back to Kanta, "Now, I do what I started out to do, find the god tree. I think it's in Suna, or at least somewhere in Reto's desert. I think I need to go to Suna." She frowned at the floor.
Her time in Suna had been extensive. She had gone before the war, helping Gaara, the Kazekage with his hospital, they had become good friends, more so than they had already been before, through their mutual friendship with Naruto. She knew some parts of the desert well, but most of it, not well at all. She had only a few sentences to go on, she needed to write to Reto.
"Suna..." Kanta pulled her from her thoughts.
"Would you like me to, I mean, I said I would ask Lord Hashirama if I could go with you before, did you still want me to go with you?" Kanta asked.
Sakura found Madara across the room, he was talking with Hashirama, but he was also watching her talk to Kanta.
"No, I'm sorry Kanta. I don't think it is appropriate now." She said slowly.
Kanta looked at the Uchiha clan head, saw how the man watched Sakura like a hawk. He sighed, "I suppose not. You'll be careful though, won't you?"
"Of Course." Sakura hugged Kanta and left him to walk over to Toka who also had been watching them.
"I knew there was something wrong with you!' Toka hit her lightly on the shoulder, making Sakura grin and rub the back of her head in embarrassment.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura asked her faking innocence and laughing with the other woman.
"There was something about you, you know? You were different, but it wasn't just the way you acted, or your confidence, it was the words you used, the way you talked, the way you weren't scared of men, like most women are of this time." Toka was looking Sakura over carefully, like someone picking out a ripe melon in the market, not sure if the one they had just picked up was ripe or not.
"You're not scared of men, but you aren't from the future." Sakura laughed.
"Well, I'm not the social norm, but I think, "Toka looked at the pinkette again with interest in her eyes, "Women of your time are more outgoing, more confident, tell me, are there more women Shinobi in your time?
"Oh yes, lots more, and remember my Shisou, she was the Fifth Hokage." Sakura smiled.
"Hokage, is that what they will be called." Toka looked over at her cousin, who was still in conversation with Madara.
"You know, I followed him that day. That day their fathers found them at the river, the day the could no longer pretend they weren't enemies." Toka watched the two men, friends once more.
"Too bad you didn't come sooner." Toka laughed, "Maybe we could have avoided more bloodshed, but, better late than never." Toka smiled at Sakura as they watched Hashirama and Madara talk.
"Do you love him?" Toka asked her.
"Madara?" Sakura asked surprised.
"Duh." Toka shook her head at her friend.
Sakura smiled, it was almost like having Ino back. Her eyes followed Madara's lips as he spoke, the twitch of his mouth as he tried not to laugh, the curve of his jaw..."I could," Sakura blushed.
Toka smiled. "Don't mind Tobi Kun, he had you in mind for himself, but he'll get over it." Toka shrugged.
Sakura looked at her friend, "What did you say?"
"Oh nothing, just that Tobirama, had mentioned to Hashi a few times that he thought you would make a good wife, he asked Hashi this morning if he could court you but, Hashi had told him he didn't think it was a good idea, now that I see you with Madara, I know why."
Toka walked off then to speak to someone who had been motioning to her from across the room.
Sakura stared after her, neither of the women noticed the younger Uchiha, who had been listening to their conversation, who now turned back to glare more fiercely at the white haired Senju.
