Sakura was going over her notes that she had written after she had eaten about her experience with the obelisk when Toka knocked on the door to her sitting room.

"Toka, come in." Sakura stepped aside to let the kunoichi into her rooms.

"Glad to see you're feeling better, you gave us quite a scare you know." Toka smiled a little looking at Sakura's face, still a little worried about the woman.

"I'm fine Toka, how are the others?" Sakura sat back down on her couch gesturing for the woman to join her.

"Oh you know men, they're fine, congratulating themselves on saving your life and all that, Tobi Kun most of all claiming if he hadn't been there you would have died for sure." Toka laughed.

"I'm not sure he's completely wrong about that, I'm glad he was there." Sakura smiled at the other woman.

Toka looked at the journal Sakura had been writing in when she had knocked on her door, "So, it looks like that brain of yours is working over time, have a new plan?" Toka asked her.

"I do but, I'm not sure if everyone will agree with me, when I say it is the best option." Sakura bit her bottom lip.

"I can see you're determined, tell me." Toka sat back and waited patiently, she admired the young woman and she owed her her life, she would help her if she could.

"I want to go back to the obelisk and try it again, this time using my yin seal." Sakura tapped the purple rhombus on her forehead.

"Uh huh." Toka looked at her waiting for the rest, when the rest never came, she sat forward in her seat leaning toward Sakura.

"Are you insane?" Toka asked her seriously.

"I am not, why does everyone ask me that." Sakura huffed.

"Uh cause that is a bad idea, you could have died, why the hell would you want to do it again?" Toka asked her.

"I felt something, and I won't die, not if I use my seal. The answer is there. I know it." Sakura insisted.

"The rest of the team will never agree to this. The men were worried sick when you returned in Tobi's arm looked half dead, they won't want you going back." Toka told her.

"Then we won't tell them." Sakura smiled sweetly at her known accomplice.

Toka shoved her face in her hands, "You're going to get me in trouble with Tobi Kun aren't you..."

Sakura laughed, "It will be worth it if I find what I think I will." Sakura assured her.

"What do you think will happen? What do you think you'll find?" Toka asked her, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"The god tree of course." Sakura said confidently.

Sakura left just after midnight, after the guard change at the gates of Suna, after she was sure her team was in bed and that Reto had retired for the night. Her feet barely hit the sand with each pounding of her heart, she had said goodbye to Toka in her sitting room with instructions for their team if she didn't make it back, and with a letter to Madara explaining to him what she had done and why. She thought she owed him, at least that much.

She stopped in front of the obelisk just before the witching hour, it was a moonless night, her pulse raced as she popped two soldier pills into her mouth and ground them between her teeth. Sakura took a deep breath, prayed that her friends would be safe, that this would work and placed her hands on the stone, pressing her chakra into the obelisk like she had done before.

The stone glowed with her chakra under her palms, she could feel the energy draining from her body, her chakra being pulled deeper and deeper, down farther and farther into the stone and wondered how far the stone went into the sand. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, visions clouded her mind behind the diamond on her forehead, that's when she saw it, the god tree, on a hill, deep within the desert. She released her seal, her hands stuck fast to the now throbbing stone and she wondered, was it the stone or her body that quaked and cracked, as light rent the air around her with the smell of ozone.

Tobirama sat up hard in his borrowed bed. He looked out the window of the room he shared with Toka. "Sakura?"

He had felt the surge of her chakra like a beacon, what the hell had the woman done now...

"Toka, where is Sakura? I don't feel her in her room." Tobirama asked Toka who was also sitting up in her bed.

Toka remained silent.

Tobirama looked at her, she wasn't dressed for bed, she wasn't under her covers, she knew something.

"Tell me what you know." Tobirama growled, it was a command, not a request.

Toka told him. Before her last sentence had finished he had dressed and teleported out of their room.

"Sakura." The voice of the Rabbit goddess crept along the sand to her damaged ears.

"Wake up child." The voice persisted.

"Kaguya?" Sakura groaned out trying to lift her arm to push herself up into a sitting position.

"I knew you would find it. Wake up child, you're here, with the god tree." Kaguya's voice was closer now.

Sakura cracked her eyes open, one and then the other. It was still night outside but...she wasn't beside the obelisk, she was, somewhere different.

"Where am I?' Sakura asked, her throat dry, cracked and aching.

"We are on the moon, the obelisk is a portal, the doorway to the moon, where the god tree lives."

Sakura bolted to her feet...and immediately dropped back down to her knees in pain. She held her head in her hands. "How did I, impossible, the moon?"

"Yes, look." Kaguya said patiently.

Sakura opened her eyes again, standing slowly this time and looked around her. She could see the outline of the Earth, the stars shone like diamonds, she could see the rings of planets she never knew existed, in the darkness of the moon's ethereal glow, and then...her eyes fell on it, the god tree.

"It's so beautiful." Sakura whispered...amazed.

"Yes, beautiful and dangerous. I regret." The Rabbit goddess said, looking at the tree, standing beside Sakura.

Sakura watched the goddess, her eyes were that beautiful milky lavender, like the Hyugas and Sakura remembered her friend Hinata telling her once, that they were descendants of the Otsutsuki clan, as were the Senju and the Uchiha.

Her eyes looked so sad, so lonely. She thought of Sasori, and all the mistakes he had made in his life, of Gaara, all the blood, of Sasuke, Itachi and Madara.

"Will this end it? If I destroy the tree, will this end it?" Sakura asked Kaguya.

"You are a very unusual child Sakura Haruno, you feel, more than any other human I have ever taken an interest in, you are selfless, you...care. I chose you because you are the only one who can kill with remorse, who can destroy and then heal." Kaguya spoke as though she hadn't heard Sakura's question.

"Did you ever wonder why it was I chose you to be the one to come here, to go back, to save everyone..." Kaguya took Sakura's chin in her hand and gazed into her eyes.

"You didn't, I pushed..." Sakura began but Kaguya interrupted her.

"You are the only pure soul left, the only one who can kill the god tree and not take any of it's power from it while doing so, the only human that would knowingly sacrifice themselves, for those they love and ask for nothing in return but for their loved one's happiness. I'll never understand you humans, so...unique." Kaguya continued to hold Sakura's chin in her hand.

"Please." Sakura said softly. "Tell me what I need to do."

"Infuse your chakra to your fingers and infuse it with the chakra that remains in the god tree, break it's mortal connection to your world. By doing so, you will break not only the curse of the hatred but ensure the survival of all those you love now and for the generations to come, all of your children." Kaguya said kindly, releasing her hold on Sakura's chin.

Sakura nodded once and stepped up to the tree. She could feel the light and the dark energy emanating from the ground up, as though it were seeping out, reaching for her from the roots. Sakura did as Kaguya had told her to do. She pushed her chakra into her fingers, placed her hands on the tree and pushed her chakra into the smooth bark of the dangerous object.

She could see them all, looking at her, all of her loved ones, her village, her parents, Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi Sensei and Tsunade Shisou...she could see Izuna, Madara, Hashirama, Tobirama, Kanta and Reto...images of the tailed beasts flooded through her head, then, it was as though her heart broke.

Visions of death, destruction, corpses lined the fields, the valleys of the world. Blood ran through the once dry and depleted river beds, bones lined the streets of every village, it was terrifying. The stench of decay and desperation filled her nose, her stomach clenched, her heart skipped.

Sakura felt a hand on her shoulder, she opened eyes she hadn't realized she had closed, her hands stuck fast to the tree, she turned her head and Gaara was there, Sasori and Itachi, smiling at her, with joy in their eyes, wild with emotion, her heart broke again, but with the love reflected in their eyes.

Two figures appeared as her chakra continued to leave her body, one brown haired, one black in robes of pristine white, the robes of the sage of six paths, Indra and Asura Otsutsuki. They bowed low before her. "Thank you Sakura."

Their light faded as the last of her chakra faded from her hands, "It is enough." She felt her lips move, she heard the words leave her mouth, "As long as everyone is okay, it is enough."

Darkness engulfed her, her hands slipped from the tree, now white and dead...her body hit the dust of the ground on the moon's bleak surface.

'It is enough', her mind said once more before it too faded away.

Kaguya bent low over the girl at her feet, before she too faded from existence, "Thank you child, for doing what I could not."

Madara stared down at Sakura as she slept. She had been asleep for over three days now. Tobirama and the rest of their team had left Suna soon after discovering her body in the sand beside the obelisk. He had heard the story many times since their return, from his men, from Tobirama and from Toka.

They had signed the alliance with Sand the previous day. Reto had come to the Uchiha compound to pay his respects and give Madara his well wishes, hoping for Sakura's swift recovery. Madara looked at the golden sand ornament that lay on the bedside table of the guest room they had laid her in. Reto's gift, to his intended. He would have crushed the annoying thing, but didn't wish to upset Sakura should she have wanted to keep it.

He had only left her side to attend meetings he couldn't avoid , to meet with people that required his attention, but he had always come straight back to sit by her side after, like he was doing now. Izuna would come frequently, to sit with them, with him to go over some business that hadn't required his time but required his signature. Madara didn't know how he would handle running the clan and building a new village with Hashirama...if she died.

Madara pulled his chair up to her bedside and laid his head on the bed, taking her hand in his, pulling her arm close to his face, he buried his face in her palm.

Sakura had been dreaming again, of her time, only instead of the war, it was the founder's day festival, instead of people dying, they were dancing, instead of raining blood, flower petals flew from cherry trees that lined the Konoha market street and she was dancing with a tall man, with long spiky black hair. Sakura smiled up at the man, but she couldn't see his face, she had her arms around his neck and was laughing with him, but she couldn't hear his voice. He bent his head to kiss her but she couldn't feel his lips, a name, his name...on the tip of her tongue.

"Do you want this?" A familiar voice asked her.

Sakura turned in the faceless man's embrace and looked to see Kaguya in all her multi layered splendor.

"Want this?" Sakura asked her confused.

"Do you want this man, or do you want to go back? I will gift you whichever one you chose, the choice is yours." Kaguya told her.

"You said you couldn't send me back." Sakura frowned.

"I lied." Kaguya said simply.

Sakura gaped at her, "You...lied?"

"I needed you here, to kill the god tree."

"Oh." Sakura said her voice hollow.

"Which do you choose?" Kaguya asked her once again.

Sakura turned to face the man once more, then looked past him to Konoha, a Konoha she knew so well, with faces in the crowd she had seen before, in another life. The man that held her gripped her tightly, pulling her close up against him, buried his face in her neck.

"Madara." She found her voice, and said his name. The faceless man's features darkened before her eyes.

"Sakura, love." His deep voice surrounded her and the lights began to fade.

Sakura turned back to look for Kaguya, but she had vanished, the world fell around her, Madara's arms locked tight around her waist.

"Sakura, please, come back to me." He said in a whisper, his arms slipping from around her waist, one hand coming up to cup her cheek, "Please Sakura.", was all she heard before her world went black once more.

Pain...she was in so much pain. Sakura groaned out, her arms reaching out for the man but he wasn't there. She turned her head to look for him but her head wouldn't move, something was holding her in place, she opened her eyes. A large hand was cupping her cheek, another holding her hand to his face.

"Madara." Her voice came out cracked and bruised.

"Sakura." His eyes opened and he sat up, both of his hands reaching for her, gathering her up into his arms and crushing her to his chest.

"Can't. Breath. Jackass." She bit out trying to suck air into her tight chest cavity as he was trying to crush her into oblivion. "Let. Go. Oaf!" She pushed but he only held her tighter.

"Sakura." He said her name over and over into her hair, "I thought you would sleep forever, I thought I had lost you before we even had a chance to, to start." He let her go long enough to look into her eyes, she took a deep breath, then let it out in a loud Whoosh as he crushed her to his chest again.

"I'm. Not. Dead. Yet, but I will be if you. Don't. Let. Me go damn it !" She gasped for air through his arms squirming like mad to get away from him.

Finally he let her go, his eyes narrowed at her, "I heard what you did woman, are you insane?"

Sakura almost regretted telling him to let her go, she wasn't sure if she liked the desperately clingy Madara or the condescending one better at this point.

"I am not insane, I wish people would stop saying that." She huffed.

"Your team told me what happened, they told me what happened the first time you touched that damned stone then that you went back and did it again...alone! Why?" He demanded.

"I had to, it was the only way. I saved everyone though." She added meekly.

"So I hear." He said, his eyes dropping to her hands.

Sakura looked at her hands, there were light bandages over them, they had been burned, she realized, by the god tree.

"I guess I didn't come away unscathed." She said looking up at him from behind her lashes.

"There's more. " He pulled a mirror from the drawer beside the bed, lifted it in front of her face and tapped her forehead." See for yourself."

Sakura looked in the mirror, her eyes were tired, the bags hung dark under her eyes, her face was a pasty white but what he had been referring to was clear. Her rhombus on her forehead...wasn't alone, there were four, lined up to make one larger one. The diamonds were smaller than her original one and a much darker purple, almost black in color, dense.

"What is this?" She asked.

"No one knows." Madara said. " We were hoping you could tell us."

Sakura shook her head, she had no idea.

They spent the rest of the day talking about her time on the moon, how she had gotten there, what the goddess had offered her and what had happened while she had been gone, the changes that had been made and agreed upon by both clans, where their new village was going to be. Madara ate dinner with her in her room. Izuna came after dinner to visit with her and to tell her how happy and grateful he was that she was back, that she was home.

Sakura smiled as Toka Senju came to visit her the next morning with Tobirama and Hashirama. She suffered yet another lecture for her darring and carelessness from Tobirama and returned the sly smiles from Toka as the white haired man scolded her. Hashirama had brought her a bonsai plant, a sakura blooming bonai and she placed it in the window of her room. They left and were soon replaced by Kagami and Setsuna who expressed their gratitude and scolded her , though not as harshly as the others, but expressed their concerns for her health and left her with sticky buns and dango.

She spent two more days in bed at Madara's request but on the third day she absolutely refused to go back to bed after breakfast and you could hear the screaming match for miles.

"Think you know everything don't you!" You could hear Madara yelling.

"I know more than you do about healing and I'm telling you I'm fine damn it!" Sakura could be heard yelling just as loudly.

Izuna slid the door open to Sakura's bedroom and coughed loudly, "Ah, excuse me but could you keep it down, I'm trying to make an important decision about out new village but you're making it impossible to concentrate, Tobi Kun and I have both had to re read the same manual over twice now because of your childish bickering."

"Tobi Kun?" Sakura said amazed Izuna would use such an endearing and familiar suffix for the white haired Senju.

"Yes, it's for you actually, we are trying to figure out the best place for the hospital." Izuna smiled at her drop jawed expression.

"For me?" She asked with a smile growing on her face.

"Of course, who else is better suited to run the new village hospital?" He asked her with a wink.

Sakura turned to Madara, "you knew about this?"

"Knew, it was his idea." Izuna smirked.

"Was it?" Sakura turned to Madara once more.

"Well, who else coudl do it, you're the best fucking medic in the whole world, your words, not mine." He grinned at her.

"Madara! Thank you!" She leapt into his arms and he caught her around the waist.

"You're welcome." His lips met hers, Izuna slid the door shut leaving them alone and made his way back to the sitting room.

"She's feeling better I take it?" Tobirama asked with a smirk of his own.

"Clearly." Izuna laughed.

Madara and Sakura were married six months later at the gates of the new Uchiha compound in the newly founded village hidden in the leaves. Reto, the Kazekage was there as were all the new clan heads of their village. The Nara were there, the Hyuga were there, the Akamichi, the Yamanaka, the Sarutobi, the Inuzuka and the Abaramei clans. The Hatake clan was there, though late but in time to pour the sake and eat the food of course.

Sakura never regretted her decision to stay in the past. Her knowledge of the future and her healing prowess helped make Konoha one of the most powerful and well loved villages throughout the five nations. The alliance with Suna was one of many alliances to follow. By the birth of Sakura and Madara's third child the Leaf had signed an alliance with Kumo and Iwa as well as their already signed alliances with Bear and Rain.

There were of course other villages out there that were not officially part of their alliance but they kept to themselves. There was relative peace in the world. Izuna became the second Hokage after Hashirama, then Sasuke Sarutobi's son Hiruzen after Izuna. The Shimura clan had decided on a whim, not to join their village, there were rumours of a place called Sound, that was growing under the Shimura clans guidance but they were only rumors for now.

Sakura sat with her family in the gardens of the Uchiha compound, her new daughter on her lap, her two boys playing not far from where her and her husband sat at a stone table simliar tot he one in the old Uchiha compound.

"Are you happy dear?" Madara looked at his wife fondly.

"I am." Sakura smiled at her husband, the baby in her arms and her two boys rolling around in the grass beside them.

"I am very happy." She said.