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The rain was constantly pouring down heavily on the ground just when Sasuke had arrived in time at some part of the forest alone by himself. Then, he was cornered by a few white Zetsus.

"You already found me," the dark-haired ninja said coolly.

"Why are you here?" They interrogated curiously.

"I don't have any reason. I passed through two cities before coming here but they were empty. I thought that the situation out here was strange but do you know anything about this?" He asked.

"We are the ones asking questions here. Why did you come outside?" The white Zetsu questioned again vehemently.

"If you don't like me to be here, why don't you try to capture me? You even have a lot of people on your side this time," Sasuke said, smirking in a daring way.

"You! Could it be that you killed our original?!" One of the white Zetsus was astonished, further narrowing his eyes at him.

"This time, I'm facing a group of opponents. That's good. I should obtain a certain amount of feedback," he pointed out until the rest of them began to charge at him. But he was quick enough to summon the Susanoo right in front of their faces after activating his Sharingan. He controlled one of them and continued on, saying. "This is a war. I have to defeat my enemies. That Tobi. It seems that he waged it, huh."

"We have to seize Killerbee and Naruto. We must hurry. His comrades are gathering to the place where he is…" the white Zetsu informed him while he was in a state of trance.

The wicked smirk began to form on Sasuke's lips and declared. "Well, I guess it's time to go to that place then because I will kill him."

During that moment in the farthest desert, the pink-haired kunoichi was trying to keep her eyes open as soon as she started to lose consciousness due to the purple veins that were immensely enlarging from her arms to her feet. She gagged dark liquid out of her mouth, using her right hand and was shocked. The purple veins had been attached to her since the moment she first passed out. Willingly, she doesn't want to experience this twice. Unfortunately, they were already afflicting her and for some reason, she has no idea what they are.

Sakura began to take short amounts of breaths, then landed quickly on the nearest rocky hill. After seven minutes of rest, she started to recall back on the argument she had with Gaara. Somehow, she doesn't know if she should feel guilty or not, just by opposing him with her plans.

"Now what…? I feel heavy. These veins. Where did they come from?" She asked suspiciously in her mind as her forehead was forming sweat drops.

She wiped them off and hissed. "Damn. It's taking over my bones as well."

"Hold on. I'm trying to figure out," her inner self said hurriedly.

"There's not enough time. We got to keep moving forward," the pink-haired kunoichi stated, then unzips her porch to grab four tiny tubes of antidotes and insert the needle into her arms and legs.

"I think I know now," her inner half said softly.

"What is it?" Sakura asked blankly with her eyes closed.

"It's very baffling… Those purple veins are part of the 'curse,'" she stated, much to her horror.

She gasped in her mind and questioned angrily. "What the hell do you mean by that? What curse?! Nobody ever placed anything on me."

"Really? Because I'm sure there is. We both have it. What's worse is that you and I are connected, which makes the curse grow even stronger and excruciating for us to experience," her inner half explained simply and continued on in curiosity. "Come to think of it, the last battle we had was with Katsumi. The weird thing is that we never saw her do something in front of us or felt anything from her, right? Don't you find that quite dubious?"

The pink-haired kunoichi didn't respond back and thought about the fights she had recently.

"Hello, Sakura? Are you there?" Her inner half called out.

"Yes. I do find it odd…" she answered.

"Hmm. Seems like the argument you have with is weighing you down, I see," she guessed correctly.

The pink-haired kunoichi looked away and tried to hold back her tears.

"Hey, listen. This may be tough for us at this moment. Surely, this won't last a lifetime. I guarantee that. Okay? We are in the middle of war here and it's just the beginning. Whatever it is that Gaara can't understand, he will come to realize that he's believing the wrong person. He has no idea what he's thinking right now because he's blinded by the illusion of someone who he thinks is perfect for him. Guess what? Katsumi is not perfect at all, despite her beauty and charm. I'm certain that he will see further into what she is. How rotten and despicable that girl is. Now, we just got to find out what the main root of this curse is happening to us and how we can eliminate it as soon as possible," her inner half pointed out determinedly.

The pink-haired kunoichi giggled and said with a smile. "You never stopped giving up, do you?"

"Not at all. I'm here for you always. That's why you and I should trust each other more and believe that everything will be just fine. Better days will come. I promise," her inner half said smiling back at her.

"Thanks, Sakura," the pink-haired kunoichi said grinning heartwarmingly.

"Anytime," she said and stuck her tongue out with a peace hand sign.

Then, as soon as the pink-haired kunoichi fluttered her eyes open, she narrowed her eyes boldy at the front surface of the desert and declared with a low tone of her voice deeply saying. "Alright. Let's do this."

She stood up and fixed her headband on top of her head as well as she tightly secured her gloves.

Meanwhile, Naruto and the five Kages had been separated into different battles with the enemies. Tsunade was mostly the one to fight against Madara more since they've known about their past history.

"Now, it's five vs. one. Please don't call me a coward, you're the five Kage after all. I'll ask you one question," the Uchiha said and continued slyly. "Do you prefer the clones to you Susanoo or not…?"

The five Kage stood on their spots and waited for the right moment to attack. Inside Kabuto's hiding place, Sasuke and Itachi had met up with each other and had a conversation about which side he was on until they both encountered the real enemy. This was a battle for the two Uchiha brothers.

A couple of minutes later, the green leaf ninja kept running as his eyes were wandering around the desert area, searching for her.

"Where are you? Please be near," he hoped worriedly in thought.

When he saw a slender figure with short pink hair, he found Sakura tying her pouch around her waist tightly. He called out to her loudly by asking. "Hey! Are you okay?!"

The pink-haired kunoichi spun around to look at the person and nodded in response. "Yeah, I am. What are you doing here? I thought you and the others have left already."

Lee sighed and rubbed the back of his head, saying. "Not really. We were all worried about you. For a minute, we thought that you are in some sort of trouble again."

Sakura huffed a little and shook her head. "I'm fine. Anyway, we shouldn't stay here for longer."

She started walking away, which confused Lee.

"Wait, wait. Sakura," he grabbed her arm gently and asked. "I thought we were going to go back to our friends."

The pink-haired kunoichi stared at him for a moment and refused. "No. It's up to them to follow us. Right now, I have plans in my mind. I know how we can defeat the Akatsuki, but there is something that you need to know…"

"What is it?" Lee asked blankly in puzzlement.

"I have these purple veins attached to me and my inner half said that I'm-" Sakura got interrupted.

"Cursed?" A familiar voice mentioned out loud from the distance, which startled the both of them.

They turned around to see who it was and narrowed their eyes at the figure on top of the rocky surface.

"Miss me?!" The white Zetsu asked gleefully in delight and jumped down from the hill. He approached them slowly and stopped in front of them with his hands held out in gesture. "Looks like the beast and the freak have decided to go together and conquer the world. How cute."

"First of all, never call her a freak. And secondly, you should be gone by now!" Lee yelled out.

"Lee…" Sakura muttered quietly as she glanced at him with a frown.

"Really? Let's see who will be gone first then. Shall we?!" The white Zetsu began to extend his arms and sharpen his fingers, forming them into claws.

Lee and Sakura once again prepared themselves into a combat position with both of their fists held out, ready to fight him in their next set of battle.


TO BE CONTINUED...